Marlon Wayans Sparks Debate After Defending His Friendship With Dave Chappelle Despite Having A Trans Son

After an absence of 13 years, the Scary Movie franchise is making a return to the big screens with Scary Movie 6.

Scary Movie 6 is also notable for marking the return of Marlon Wayans to the franchise, after he and his brothers Shawn Wayans and Keenan Ivory Wayans were pushed out of the franchise amid some ill will from disgraced Miramax CEO Harvey Weinstein.

Known for poking fun at such iconic slasher films as Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Saw, the parody films are also known for the number of celebrity cameos.

One cameo fans of the film should not expect in Scary Movie 6 is Dave Chappelle, despite Wayans best efforts to make it happen.

Indeed, Wayans' friendship with Chappelle has recently come under scrutiny, with Wayans being the father of a transgender son, and Chappelle having made some anti-trans jokes in recent Netflix comedy specials, prompting a mass walk out of several Netflix employees.

During an interview with Variety, Wayans revealed that he found a way to separate his friend from his comedy, and support his son at the same time:

“As a comedian, I respect his journey."

"And as a friend, I respect his journey."

"And for my child, I respect their journey.”

“And as the father of my child, I can appropriate my feelings toward my friend and my feelings toward my child, and how we can put those two things together, and I can explain both sides."

"I’m between them, so I can explain both sides to each other.”

Wayans has been open about his son's transition as a learning experience for him, and has since become an outspoken supporter of the transgender community, even publicly calling out Elon Musk for making transphobic remarks against his own daughter.

When it comes to his good friend Chappelle, however, Wayans is a bit more forgiving, even going so far as to say his remarks are not genuine, but merely comedy:

“I wouldn’t hang with Dave if he was full of hate."

"I don’t hang with people like that.”

“I know Dave’s heart, and his intention isn’t to punch down."

"Dave wants to freely tell his jokes, and if you’re going to be anti-comedy, then he’s going to keep attacking you until you learn to have a sense of humor."

"He’s just standing there and defending his front line as a comedian.”

Reddit users were fairly underwhelmed by Wayans' defense of Chappelle, and how that defense dismissed just how hurtful many of Chappelle's remarks were:

"The description of him explaining why Dave Chappelle isn't transphobic to his trans son sounds insufferable, and the embedded trailer for his comedy movie where the first joke is just a "did you just assume my gender" meme from fifteen years ago hasn't done much to dispell this impression of him." -almost_succubus

“'Nobody was going to tell Chappelle who he could and couldn’t joke about'. 'Have to be a comedian to understand that'. Wayans may understand why he’s a d*ck but he’s still a d*ck." -ThePuppyLaghima

"No amount of pr can undue that grifter's damage." -NotAtAllASkinwalker

"Cognitive dissonance is the secret." -Lizzerfly

"That and Scary Movie 6 being marketed as anti-woke." -MsChar96

"'If there's 9 people at a table with 1 nazi, you have 10 nazis'. Marlon, if you associate with known transphobic sh*thead Dave Chappelle, that means you value his opinion more than your own child'." -transcended_goblin

"We must educate him."--SKYFALKEN

But some Facebook users understood Wayans' perspective a little bit more:

@Entertainment Weekly/Facebook

@Entertainment Weekly/Facebook

@Entertainment Weekly/Facebook

@Entertainment Weekly/Facebook

@Entertainment Weekly/Facebook

The timing of Wayans' defense of Chappelle was striking, not only ahead of the release of Scary Movie 6, but at a time when Chappelle seems to be making an effort. at damage control.

Chappelle expressed his outrage to NPR that his material was "politicized" by the republican party, claiming they were doing a "weaponized" version of his comedy.

Nor was Chappelle pleased when Lauren Boebert posted a selfie of the two of them as a means to espouse her outspoken anti-trans views.

Most recently, during an appearance on Michelle Obama's IMO podcast, Chappelle made an effort to clarify that his jokes were not deliberately anti-trans and were misunderstood:

"People would think it’s me versus the gay community."

"I never looked at it like that."

"I always thought it was corporate interest and culture negotiating itself."

For his part, Wayans has found a way to include his experience being the parent of a transgender child into his comedy act, currently on tour, in what he hopes is a meaningful way:

“I bare my soul on the stage, and I give other trans parents the guide on how to get there."

"And they come up to me after the show and thank me for that, and they cry."

Scary Movie 6 hits theaters on June 5, with this year's Oscar darlings Sinners and Weapons joining the distinguished league of parodied genre films.