Jerrod Carmichael has walked back his comments about fellow comedian Dave Chappelle. Previously, the Primetime Emmy Award winner criticized Chappelle for his jokes about transgender people.
“I want to say that I’m sorry for that because, one, I’m a huge Dave Chappelle fan,” Jerrod Carmichael stated during an appearance on The Breakfast Club. “I think he’s brilliant.”
Carmichael continued, “I think he’s a bright light in a dying industry. I think he’s more important now than ever before because comedians are now just posting clips of them doing crowd work online and calling it art, and it’s not art.”
In 2022, the star of HBO’s Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show suggested Dave Chapelle ruined his legacy by focusing on making fun of the transgender community. Carmichael also called Chappelle an “egomaniac” in a recent interview with Esquire magazine.
“I’ll never do it again. I do apologize for that. I’m man enough to say that is wrong. I don’t need it. I don’t want the attention. It has gone on way too long,” Jerrod Carmichael told The Breakfast Club hosts.
Carmichael also said, “There are so few artists, people actually doing art, not doing podcasts, not doing like crowd work videos online, actually doing the art. [Chappelle’s] one of the few. I have a deep respect for him. And that’s all I’ll say.”