Dave Chappelle's controversial Netflix special The Closer has scored 96 per cent positive reviews from regular viewers on Rotten Tomatoes - but just 43 per cent from woke critics who've accused Chappelle of transphobia.
Rotten Tomatoes, which collates reviews from critics and regular viewers for movies and TV shows, has attracted more than 2,500 notices from normal people who've watched the special. Around 96 out of every 100 regular viewers has given it a near-perfect score. Many also wrote glowing reviews to accompany their ratings.
Conversely, the seven professional critics' reviews analyzed by Rotten Tomatoes average out at just 43/100, with many of the journalists behind those pieces openly hostile to Chappelle for his perceived bigotry towards transgender people.
Journalists including cultural commentator Jesse Singal have noted the stark contrast, saying it suggests that woke-obsessed media elites are more out of touch with regular people than ever.
He shared a grab of the two Rotten Tomatoes scores, and captioned it: 'Then, early in the 21st century, social scientists realized that many of these questions of class and education and culture and mass media could best be explained by what they came to call "The Chappelle Ratio"'.
The polarizing production has received rave reviews from viewers online, garnering a 96% user rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but scored just 43% with critics
One Twitter user, journalist Jesse Singal, joked about the stark difference in opinions between the two groups, equating the dissent to a division of social classes
Among the criticism of Chappelle from professional critics was the onslaught that came at the hands of Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic Ian Thomas Malone, who is transgender.
She wrote: 'Dave Chappelle is the most successful comedian alive.
'That notion might be lost on a viewer of his latest special The Closer,' Malone went on to say in a scathing review.
She then labeled the special, 'an hour that largely abandons the pretext of comedy in favor of a litany of grievances, many toward the LGBTQ community.'
The critic further declared that the comic, 48, puts a 'special emphasis on his seemingly favorite punching bag, the transgender community' - before scolding Chappelle for using the term 'transgenders' in his act instead and engaging in 'rampant transphobia.'
Chappelle has faced furious backlash from the LGBTQ community and activists alike since the special's release last week, for remarks that some have deemed transphobic - and activists are clamoring for the title's removal
Malone, a transgender woman in her thirties who bills herself as 'an author, transgender activist, and yogi from Greenwich, CT' - as well as a comedian and podcast host - went on to call The Closer and Chappelle 'transphobic' in the review.
Malone wrote The Transgender Manifesto, a 'bestseller in LGBTQ non-fiction,' in 2017, and her debut comedy album, Confessions From My New Vagina, was released last year.
Another critic, Kevin Fallon, a senior entertainment reporter for The Daily Beast, called the comedian's new special 'a panicked defense of controversial past jokes' on Friday, adding, 'The humor doesn't land. Neither does the justification.'
Fallon's colleague, Daily Beast Senior Entertainment Editor Marlow Stern, similarly slammed the special on the very same day.
He called Chappelles' set in The Closer 'incendiary, troubling, and unapologetic' and said that many of the comic's jokes in this special, as well as previous shows, were transphobic.
Roger Moore, who runs the film criticism website and podcast MovieNation, also bashed the closer in a review Sunday, stating that Chappelle's insistence on making jokes at the expense of the transgender constitutes an 'obsession,' which the comic 'keeps explaining over and over again.'
On IMDB, user ratings were also somewhat divided, but viewers for the most part applauded the special - with more than 40 percent of reviewers granting The Closer a perfect 10/10 score.
Nearly 50 percent of the remaining votes awarded the special a score of seven or higher.
Four percent gave the polarizing production a paltry 1 out of 10 - the sixth-most common score after 6 through 10.
The special garnered a respectable weighted average of 8.2 out of 10 - with nearly every age and gender demographic giving the special an average score of 8 or higher.
The only demographics to give The Closer an average rating of 7.9 or less were women in the 18-29 age range, as well as women aged 30-44, who handed the special a score of 7.8 and 7.9, respectively.
On IMDB, ratings were also somewhat divided, but users for the most part applauded the special - with more than 40 percent of reviewers granting The Closer a perfect 10/10 score
The only demographics to give The Closer an average rating of 7.9 or less were women in the 18-29 age range, as well as women aged 30-44, who handed the special a score of 7.8 and 7.9, respectively.
Chappelle has faced furious backlash from the LGBTQ community and activists alike since the special's release last week, for remarks that some have deemed transphobic - and activists are clamoring for the title's removal from Netflix.
He backed author JK Rowling over her comments on gender, said 'gender is a fact' and announced 'I'm team TERF.' TERF stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist.
The term is generally used by some trans people and their allies to attack others who disagree with some parts of their call for equality.
Hot button issues include whether trans women and girls should be allowed to compete against girls in some sports, whether trans women should be able to access certain spaces - including women's prisons and domestic violence shelters - and whether children who believe themselves to be trans should be given hormones to delay the onset of puberty.
Netlflix has continued to back Chappelle. The firm's CEO Ted Sarandos said Chappelle's special doesn't cross 'the line on hate' and will remain on the streaming service despite the fallout over the his remarks about the transgender community.
In an internal memo, Sarandos said that Netflix execs did not believe that Chappelle's work amounted to 'hate,' and that the company would not be removing
