Last week, when the National Academy for the Recording Ars and Sciences dropped it annual noms for Best Comedy Album for its Grammy Awards, there was a handful of safely secure titles that got honorable mention, Jim Gaffigan’s “Comedy Monster,” recently featured Philadelphia Weekly star Randy Rainbow (“A Little Brains, A Little Talent”) and Patton Oswalt (“We All Scream”). These made sense for each comedian’s stature and the stand-out nature of their newest recordings. So, bravo, right? See you at the ceremony.
That is, until the Recording Academy went and courted controversy, again, the last two nominations in the comedy album field with Dave Chapelle’s “The Closer,” taken from his Netflix special of the same name, and, Louis CK’s “Sorry,” named for exactly what most people outside of his rabid fan base and the Recording Academy think CK is not.
How can this happen, awarding the usually transphobic Chapelle who also alienated audiences further after the weekend prior’s hosting stint at Saturday Night Live where he told jokes during his monologue tinged with antisemitism? How can Louis CK, a comedian cancelled during the initial rush of MeToo# for his self-acknowledged sexual misconduct transgressions against women, suddenly be OK?
Probably because neither comedian ever really went away – Chapelle, in particular, as he’s never ceased or slowed his roll after being accused of transphobia for earlier comedy specials such as Equanimity, The Bird Revelation and Sticks & Stones, all before The Closer.
The other reason may be because each of these two – controversial as they may be – are simply funnier than the other three comedians on the list. More than certainly, Louis CK, who earlier this year won the heralded Grammy in the very same category for last year’s comedy album “Sincerely Louis CK,” with his principal competition being the beloved (but once accused homophobic) Kevin Hart’s “Zero Fucks Given,” Lewis Black’s “Thanks for Risking Your Life” and family style comedian Nate Bargaze for “The Greatest Average American.”
Plus, Chappelle and Louis CK have been winners in the comedy album Grammy field in the past as Chappelle won in 2020 (“Sticks & Stones”), 2019 (“Equanimity & The Bird Revelation”) and 2018 (“The Age of Spin & Deep in the Heart of Texas”) with Louis CK also being awards comedy Grammys in 2016 for “Live at Madison Square Garden,” and in 2012 for “Hilarious.” Chapelle’s adoration from the Grammy voting public knows no bounds, considering that Chappelle was nominated in the Best Spoken Word Grammy category for the starkly serious, Black Lives Matter-themed album “8:46.”
During a recent interview with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Rr., a songwriter and producer who has been nominated for five Grammys in the recent past without ever having won the honor, he addressed the CK and Chapelle dueling controversies, directly, when speaking with the Hollywood Reporter. “Well, we don’t control who the voters vote for,” he said. “If the voters feel like a creator deserves a nomination, they’re going to vote for them. The thing that we can control is making sure that people that attend our events feel safe. If there is someone that has been nominated that we don’t necessarily agree with, we’re not going to remove a nomination. We are re never going to be in the business of deciding someone’s moral position or where we evaluate them to be on the scale of morality. I think our job is to evaluate the art and the quality of the art. We can make sure that all of our spaces are safe and people don’t feel threatened by anyone. But as far as the nominations or the awards, we really let the voters make that decision.”
To that end, Mason Jr. additionally addressed the situation with rapper-producer Drake who, after feeling slighted by not seeing other albums and singles of his win, simply ceased to submit any of his work for Grammy Award consideration – which is the same thing that The Weeknd did upon feeling neglected by the Recording Academy’s Grammy voting body. Only this year, Drake did get nominated four times for his differing collaborations throughout 2022. What gives?
“I’m always pleased to see anyone nominated because I know how darn hard it is,” said Mason Jr. “I’ve been nominated five times. I have not won, by the way, which I’m not happy about, but I’ve been nominated, so I know what those nominations mean and I know how important and how special they are. When I see anybody nominated, first off, I think huge congratulations. When you start talking about who is submitting and who’s not submitting, it’s not something we can really control. I personally would love to see as many artists submit as possible. I don’t care if you’re new in the game (or if) you’ve been in the game (forever). I think the Academy is a place for all music people, whether you’re young, old, male, female, you play banjo, you rap. I do not care what it is. This is a place where we honor and we respect music. Do I want to see every artist in it? Absolutely. I want to have the ability to recognize the best music of the year, so anytime somebody does not submit, it’s something that I pay close attention to. We, as an Academy, pay close attention to it and we want to continue to work to make sure this is a place that people want to be a part of.”
Controversial or not, submitting material to the Recording Academy or not, from Harvey Mason’s perspective – and that of a whole lot of fans of blunt bold comedy – Dave Chapelle and Louis CK are damned funny and are allowed to get nominated for their humor and their efforts. (Look, Chris Brown won American Music Awards the other night after being pulled off of the actual broadcast before he performed his tribute to the late Michael Jackson on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of “Thriller,” a gig the AMA’s actually originally hired him to do, because he beat up Rihanna so badly a decade ago. An award-winning Chris Brown, validated for his efforts in music making ain’t right, but it happened nonetheless).
Just be thankful no one is voting for any R. Kelly records. Yet.
