A bravura riposte to Dave Chappelle’s trans-bashing Netflix special The Closer, perhaps the most damning indictment of the American comic and his down-punching fellow traveller Ricky Gervais is that Zoe Coombs Marr sticks their words verbatim in the mouth of her hack male stand-up creation Dave, and even he can’t fully endorse them. Throwback Dave was serving up hot takes on cancel culture as far back as 2016 but having been in a coma in the interim, he’s missed out on so much: the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, covid, the trans rights debate, and plenty more besides.

As ever, his obliviousness and confusion is only part of the charm, because while he applauds Bill Cosby, Louis CK and R Kelly for the solidarity and allyship they’ve shown to Harvey Weinstein, Dave remains sympathetic, desperately trying to comprehend a world that’s moved on so quickly without him. Once again playing with time shifts, repetition and viscous, gross-out humour, Coombs Marr foregrounds it all in a thoroughly arch, postmodern dialogue between character and creator. Nevertheless, the comic manages to eschew pretension and preachiness, instead casting light on so much wretchedly thorny subject matter with clear-sighted, incisive wit and engaging mischief.

Zoe Coombs Marr: The Opener, Pleasance Courtyard, until 27 August, 9.20pm.