'Dave Chappelle's Sticks And Stones' Trailer: Morgan Freeman Wonders How Chappelle Got Here

Dave Chappelle is releasing a new Netflix standup special, and it arrives on the streaming service later this month.

After spending several years off the grid and out of the public eye, the comedian is in the midst of a full-fledged comeback. He won an Emmy for Equanimity, his Netflix standup special released in late 2017, and that performance combined with his work on another Netflix special he released simultaneously called The Bird Revelation also won him a Grammy for Best Comedy Album.

Now Chappelle is back with a new special called Sticks and Stones, and the teaser trailer is narrated by a very familiar voice. Check it out below.

"If you say anything, you risk everything." That line paints Chappelle as someone who's willing to walk on the razor's edge of what's socially acceptable – which is arguably what any iconic comedian should do, and is exactly what he has done over the course of his long career. But as expected, that approach to comedy can ruffle some feathers: in the aforementioned award-winning special Equanimity, Chappelle made several jokes about transgender people that many found offensive, earning him lots of negative press at the time.

I'm not here to police what should and shouldn't be said on a stage in the context of a comedy special, but as narrator Morgan Freeman says in this trailer, comedy is a "high stakes game." How does one know how far to push the boundaries in a changing landscape that's more socially aware than it used to be? I don't know the answer to that question, but personally, I think we may have to acknowledge that comedians will occasionally go too far, and as long as they're willing to listen and hopefully learn, maybe that's OK in the end? It's a tough thing, and again, I don't know what the right call is here. I just know that personally, I'm looking forward to watching one of the world's greatest comedians take the stage again and give us a look into his worldview.

Here's the official description of the new show:

Unflinching and boundary-pushing, Dave gives his provocative perspective on the tidal wave of celebrity scandals, the opioid crisis, and more – in trademarked Chappelle fashion.

Dave Chappelle's Sticks and Stones drops on Netflix on August 26, 2019.