>RE: I mostly laughed at the 25 minutes I saw. But it is hard to square
>his main thesis around the trans stuff with this reasoning
>for leaving the show 15 years ago (the white people were
>laughing at him, not with him). I keep coming back to the
>conclusion that he's being hypocritical. And I say that as
>someone who still finds him pretty funny (although I do miss
>his old style of Black Goofiness - he seems sadder and darker
>now.)

I'm yet to see the epilogue, so maybe he covers this - but it'd be one thing if he at least acknowledged his strange positions on trans people as the result of a personal blindspot/prejudice or something like that. Because yea, it's definitely hypocritical of him to take this type of position.

I also said the same thing re: his new vs. old style. It's not that he wasn't covering edgy or controversial material in his older work - of course he was. But he did it in such an endearing and accessible way, which is what made it so brilliant. The way I put it to my friend yesterday is that he's more cynical and jaded now, which I guess is a result of age but still - it's sad to see. And the cynicism makes the edgier material less funny IMO.

I laughed several times throughout this special and he's still got it to a certain extent, but he certainly isn't nearly as lethal as he used to be.