Dave Chappelle asked the crowd at his comedy show to “make some noise for the world's richest man.” They did. Lots of booing.
It was a rather uncomfortable appearance for Elon Musk, Twitter's new owner, at Chappelle's show with Chris Rock on Sunday night at the Chase Center in San Francisco. At the end of the show, Chappelle was talking about the need to get along and communicate with people with different viewpoints and perspectives.
He invited Musk onstage. The billionaire obliged, wearing an “I Love Twitter” T-shirt. Loud boos filled the arena–along with some cheers, too.
Chappelle joked to Musk: “Sounds like some of those people you fired.”
As the boos continued to ring out, the comic pointed out that “All you people booing, and I'm just pointing out the obvious — are in terrible seats.”
Twitter is going through massive changes since Musk took over the social media platform, with the first few weeks of tenure seeing widespread layoffs and the restoration of several blocked accounts, including those of former president Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The other performers from the night, including Rock, Donnell Rawlings from “Chappelle's Show” and the hip hop group Black Star, came up on stage to say goodnight, while Musk also remained on stage. Chappelle asked Musk to repeat Rawlings' catch phrase from their classic show – “I'm rich b—-” Rawlings went first, and then Musk complied.
That's when Chappelle asked the crowd not to boo Musk as he needs him to open up the first comedy club on Mars. He also asked Musk if he could help Black Star's Talib Kweli, who Chappelle said had been banned from Twitter.
Musk, who bought Twitter for USD 44 billion in October, responded by saying: “Twitter customer service here.”
He stayed onstage and shook hands with many of the performers. Attendees had been required to lock up their phones during the show, but a few videos of the encounter made their way online.