Dave Chappelle, left, invited Elon Musk onto the stage during his comedy show in San Francisco Sunday night. (Associated Press)
Before welcoming Elon Musk onto the stage in San Francisco on Sunday, Dave Chappelle encouraged his fans to “make some noise for the richest man in the world.”
And they did – by loudly booing the billionaire tech mogul for nearly five minutes.
Chappelle invited Musk to his stand-up show with Chris Rock at the Chase Center in San Francisco, where the comedian told sneering viewers to “shut up,” to no avail. The new Twitter owner, who wore an “I Love Twitter” shirt to the event, also drew some cheers from the crowd at the end of the show.
“Cheers and boos I see,” Chappelle heard in a video posted to Twitter by @SteveGoffman.
“Didn’t expect that, did you?” Musk said.
“It sounds like some of the people you fired are in the audience,” Chappelle joked – referring to the broad contingent of Twitter employees who supported Musk shortly after buying the social media platform had dismissed.
“Hey, wait a minute, those of you guys are booing,” Chappelle continued in a failed attempt to calm the crowd while Musk stood silently on stage in San Francisco, where Twitter’s headquarters are located.
“Hard way ahead as it sounds,” the comedian conceded. “But do you know one thing? All these people who are booing – and I’m just pointing out the obvious – have terrible seats, and I get it.
“Boooo! listen, whatever. Look, Motherf— this N— isn’t even trying to die on Earth. His whole business model is: —F— Earth. Boo anything you want, take me with you [Musk] … I fly to Mars. Whatever P—they got up there, we’ll do that.”
Musk could only muster a quick “Thanks for having me on stage” as the boos continued as Chappelle boasted about riding jetpacks and going “baller s—” with the Tesla exec.
“Dave, what should I say?” Musk said about three and a half minutes into the Boo Fest.
“Don’t say anything,” Chappelle advised. “It will only spoil the moment. Do you hear that sound Elon? This is the sound of impending civil unrest. … Booing is not the best thing you can do.”
The story goes on
On Monday, Musk claimed on Twitter that the crowd reaction was “90% cheers and 10% boos (except during quiet times)”.
“But that’s still a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life (frequently on Twitter),” he added. “It’s almost like I insulted SF’s crazy leftists…but nahhh.”
Both Musk and Chappelle have recently come under scrutiny for their divisive behavior. The SpaceX founder has been heavily criticized for his turbulent Twitter takeover, while the insurgent has been slammed for making transphobic remarks in his 2021 Netflix special.
“I’m your ally,” Chappelle told the crowd in San Francisco after standing by Musk. “I wish everyone in this hall peace and the joy of feeling free. May your pursuit of happiness make you happy. Amen. Thank you, San Francisco. No city on earth has ever been friendlier… Good night.”
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
