Patton Oswalt has been one of the biggest topics of discussion on Twitter over the last 24 hours after the stand-up comedian published a pair of eyebrow-raising posts on Instagram over the weekend.
The King of Queens alum stepped in a major hornet’s nest after sharing a series of pics revealing his loyalty to longtime friend Dave Chappelle. Of course, the Chappelle Show creator was recently involved in his own vicious social media controversy regarding his thoughts on transgender rights and culture.
And now, Oswalt is defending his decision to pose and perform with Chappelle back on New Year’s Eve while also walking back some of his thoughts and comments about his fellow comic.
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Let’s start at the start: the s**t hit the fan when the Big Fan star Instagrammed multiple pics along with an explanation that he’d been invited by Chappelle to drop in and perform a comedy set in Seattle on New Year’s Eve.
Along with the photos, which you can see (below), Oswalt wrote of Chappelle:
“I waved good-bye to this hell-year with a genius I started comedy with 34 years ago. He works an arena like he’s talking to one person and charming their skin off. Anyway, I ended the year with a real friend and a deep laugh. Can’t ask for much more.”
And here are the pics:
Almost immediately, Chappelle’s most recent statements about the transgender community from his Netflix special The Closer sprang up. They included his defense of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and his explicit claim that he is “team TERF,” a term used for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.”
As fans on all sides of the issue descended on Oswalt’s comment section with opinions and reactions, the stand-up comic thought better of his initial post and published another piece trying to clarify his comments.
In the second post, the sitcom veteran explained himself, saying:
“I saw a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time this New Year’s Eve. We’ve known each other since we’re teens. He’s a fellow comedian, the funniest I’ve ever met. I wanted to post a pic & an IG story about it — so I did. The friend is Dave Chappelle. Thirty four YEARS we’ve been friends. He’s refocused and refined ideas a lot of us took as settled about race & history & Life On Planet Earth and spun them around with a phrase or punchline. We’ve done bad & good gigs, open mikes & TV tapings.”
And after defending his three-decade-long friendship with Chappelle, Oswalt added more about where the two of them are on the issues related to transgender people:
“We also 100% disagree about transgender rights & representation. I support trans peoples’ rights — ANYONE’S rights — to live safely in the world as their fullest selves. For all the things he’s helped ME evolve on, I’ll always disagree with where he stands NOW on transgender issues. But I also don’t believe a seeker like him is done evolving, learning. You know someone that long, see the struggles and changes, it’s impossible to cut them off.”
Ultimately, Patton reflected on the friction between being an ally to LGBT people, and being a friend to someone with whom there is a disagreement.
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He added:
“I’m an LGBTQ ally. I’m a loyal friend. There’s friction in those traits that I need to reconcile myself, and not let cause feels of betrayal in ANYONE else. And I’m sorry, truly sorry, that I didn’t consider the hurt this would cause. Or the DEPTH of that hurt. I’ve been messaging a lot on IG today, and the back and forth has really helped guide me in the writing of this.”
Here’s the full post:
That’s quite the statement.
Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Where do U stand on this controversy?
[Image via WENN/Patton Oswalt/Instagram]
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