Critics overwhelmingly praised the new National Geographic documentary “Fauci,” while panning Dave Chappelle’s Netflix comedy special, “The Closer.” However, Audiences seemed to disagree.
Released on Disney Plus Oct. 6, “Fauci” received 98% positive reviews from critics, but 2% positive reviews from audiences. Meanwhile, Chappelle’s latest special earned 33% positive reviews from critics and 97% positive reviews from audiences, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Chappelle’s special “went too far,” according to a 2200-word NPR review in which the author says Chappelle’s jokes made him “terribly angry and disappointed.” The author of a negative review of “The Closer” in Gentleman’s Quarterly admits he turned off his TV when Chappelle said “Gender is a fact.”
“Then, early in the 21st century, social scientists realized that many of these questions of class and education and culture and mass media could be best explained by what they came to call ‘The Chappelle Ratio.’ ” pic.twitter.com/0YsEfeZHWV
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) October 12, 2021
“The Closer” received more than 1,000 audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of which were positive. (RELATED: Dave Chappelle Responds To His Critics, Says ‘F**k Twitter’)
CNN, The New York Times, the Guardian, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety praised “Fauci,” a National Geographic documentary on Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The few negative critical reviews noted that the documentary did not ask hard questions about Fauci.
National Review film critic Armond White notes that “[National Geographic] dispenses with the old journalism rule of balance. It refuses to be thoroughly informative. Of more than 500 audience reviews, only 2% were positive.”
“Cuties” provides another example of diverging reviews from critics and audiences. The 2020 Netflix film, which included close-up shots of children’s buttocks and crotches along with a scene of a little girl photographing her genitalia, received 88% positive reviews from critics and 16% positive reviews from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.