Dave Chappelle Wins GRAMMY for Best Comedy Album After Criticism

Dave Chappelle won Best Comedy Album at the 2023 GRAMMYs for his 2021 special, The Closer, which was heavily criticized for his jokes about transgender women.

The category was presented at the GRAMMY Premiere Ceremony on Sunday afternoon. Chappelle was not in attendance, and Babyface accepted the trophy on his behalf. He beat fellow nominees Louis C.K., Jim Gaffigan, Randy Rainbow and Patton Oswalt for the recognition. It marks his fourth GRAMMY Award.

The Closer was the sixth special in Chappelle’s six-special deal with Netflix. He previously released The Age of Spin, Deep in the Heart of Texas, Equanimity, The Bird Revelation and Redemption Song on the same streamer. In 2022, Netflix announced another four-special deal featuring Chappelle as host for a comedy series, Chappelle’s Home Series.

In the The Closer, Chappelle told audiences he was “team TERF,” referring to the acronym for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” an ideology that believes transgender women are not women. Chappelle said he supported Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who has publicly defended similar stances, and also defended rapper DaBaby’s homophobic rant that resulted in his exclusion from several music festivals.

Chappelle received intense criticism for the comments, and was condemned by activists in the LGBTQ community. His GRAMMY Award comes one year after Louis C.K. won in the same category for his special, Sincerely Louis CK, which was his first special since the 2017 reveal of sexual assault allegations against him.