Dave Chappelle certainly rocked the audience at the conclusion of his San Francisco performance on Sunday night, but perhaps not in the way he intended when his audience reportedly booed loudly and at length at the controversial guest he brought onto the stage: Elon Musk.
Chappelle urged his audience at the Chase Center to “make some noise for the richest man in the world.” They definitely did, and the footage captured of the comedian’s stunt casting makes for odd, even uncomfortable viewing, even for people who don’t like Musk, as Gizmodo reported.
The crowd initially erupted in a mixture of cheers and boos at the sight of Twitter’s polarizing new CEO. But as the shock of Musk’s performance wore off, boos began to win out, according to footage from the set and some people in the audience.
“Cheers and boos, I see. Elon…” Chappelle said.
“Hey Dave,” Musk replied, triggering another wave of boos from the crowd.
Footage showed the booing rising as Musk paced the stage, microphone in hand. Musk tried to wave and continued pacing, obviously unsure how to react to such a negative reaction.
Chappelle tried to salvage the moment by cracking a few jokes: “It sounds like some of the people you fired are in the audience.”
“All these people booing, and I’m just pointing out the obvious, you have terrible seats,” Chappelle also said.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Musk offered a different account of the extent to which he was booed, tweeting Monday morning, “Technically it was 90% cheers and 10% boos (except during quiet times), but that’s still a lot.” Boos, which for me is a first in real life (frequently on Twitter). It’s almost like I insulted SF’s crazy leftists…but no.”
Someone fired back at Musk in reply, “We’ve got the tapes.”
Phones weren’t allowed at the Chase Center during the show, but at least one person snuck into their phone, captured the exchange, and posted it on Twitter, Gizmodo reported. It was subsequently removed from Musk’s platform, with a note that read, “This tweet is from an account that no longer exists.” However, people who were online “in the interest of free speech” saved the footage and made it through to post it on YouTube and Twitter.
The footage showed Chappelle cracking more jokes, this time about Musk’s business practices, his SpaceX company, and his ambition to colonize Mars. “His whole business model is (expletive) earth, I’m going anyway,” said Chappelle, pondering what kind of women or topless bars you might find in space.
For a moment, the crowd seemed to get back into the rhythm of laughter, along with Chappelle, until Musk spoke.
“Thanks for bringing me up on stage,” Musk said awkwardly as the boos started up again. After the comedian said Musk got him a jetpack last Christmas and the boos continued, Musk became visibly frustrated and said, “Dave, what can I say?”
“Don’t say anything. It’ll just spoil the moment,” Chappelle said. “Do you hear that sound, Elon? This is the sound of impending civil unrest. I can’t wait to see which store you decimate next… you shut up with your boos.”
According to Gizmodo and the footage, the mood in the stadium began to change when Chappelle got aggressive in his defense of Musk.
“I wish everyone in this auditorium peace and the joy of feeling free,” Chappelle said. “And your pursuit of happiness. Amen.”
While it looked like Chappelle was ready to wrap up the night, a third video showed comedian Chris Rock taking the stage with a few other people, Gizmodo reported. The video shows Chappelle asking someone on stage to do a version of the catchphrase from his 2000s sketch show: “I’m rich, biatch.”
The man tried and yelled the catchphrase into the microphone. Chappelle then handed the mic to Musk and begged him to do the same. Musk complied and offered a very awkward version, causing the crowd to erupt in more boos.
People on social media estimated that the vast majority of people in the 18,000-seat stadium booed during Musk’s performance, Gizmodo said. According to Indiewire, James Yu, founder of Sudowrite, shared on Twitter:
Went to the Dave Chapelle Show on SF tonight and who’s there but Elon Musk!
A good 80% of stadium boos. 18,000 people. and he withers. Like absolutely turning into a corn cob.
“What can I say??” He says
Dave tries to salvage the situation but to no avail
— James Yu (@jamesjyu) December 12, 2022
The crowd’s angry reaction came amid Musk’s recent provocations on Twitter, including his recent apparent efforts to question both transgender identities and the US response to the coronavirus pandemic. He tweeted Sunday that his pronouns on Twitter are “Prosecute/Fauci.”
Musk defended the tweet against criticism from former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who wrote: “Elon, please do not taunt or incite already marginalized members of the #LGBTQ+ community who are at risk of violence. They are real people with real feelings. In addition, dr. Fauci was a dedicated officer whose sole motivation was to save lives.”
I strongly disagree. Forcing your pronouns on others when they haven’t asked, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone.
As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded the gain-of-function research that has killed millions. Not great imo.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2022
