A glitch in the Matrix. Two weeks ago Netflix released the Closer, the company’s final Dave Chappelle special in a multiyear, hundred-million dollar comedy series, and many people on the internet were mad, which… ok who cares? We’ve already seen this culture war drama, and we know how it ends: a corporate apology, a few new crazy people on salary, and maybe someone’s getting fired. But after a furious reaction from Netflix’s team of in-house activists (I’m yawning), amplified by a shocked and outraged press (I’m literally falling asleep), Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos flipped the script. Critically, he rejected the activist premise that Chappelle’s speech was equivalent to violence, and explosively (according to crazy people only) generalized the point, insisting “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” Then, in the middle of a fresh rage cycle, the company suspended several activist employees for unhinged workplace behavior, and fired another. On an internal message board, Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings doubled-down on recent decisions, flatly stating he would work with Chappelle again. Much of the story was distorted by the press, which we’ll get to in a moment, and Netflix carefully wrapped every action taken in a language of feigned caring for the feelings of its in-house scolds. But the unavoidable fact was this: no one was cancelled for “dangerous” content. The mob not only failed to hurt Chappelle, or anyone involved with producing his special, but several leaders of the mob came very close to being held accountable for their own unhinged behavior. And this, if not the show itself, feels to me like new material.

Now what about this “violent” comedy?

In his special, Chappelle repeatedly assures us he’s holding nothing back this final time around while making forbidden jokes he’s pretty much already made about gay men, women, trans people, Jews, and of course white people. At no point does he encourage violence. The death of one trans woman is mentioned, somberly, at the end of a long story about his friend and longtime San Francisco opener, Daphne Dorman, who killed herself shortly after being harassed by a mob of Twitter activists for defending Chappelle. If you only read about the show you wouldn’t know this, but really what Chappelle is talking about, through the lens of a black man living in America, is race, as he has done in a compelling, effective way throughout his career. Every jab, every dunk, every swing inevitably ties back to this subject.