Twitter CEO Elon Musk was invited onstage by comedian Dave Chappelle during his San Francisco stadium show on Sunday evening — and things did not go as planned.
Chappelle was performing at the Chase Center in San Francisco, coincidentally also the hometown of Twitter’s headquarters, when he unexpectedly announced near the end of his set: “Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world.” And make noise they did.
At first, the audience reaction was mixed, with cheers and boos, but soon the jeering overtook the packed stadium, according to videos posted to Twitter and YouTube.
“You weren’t expecting this, were you?” an awkward Musk said to Chappelle.
The Twitter CEO, who has faced rebuke for firing half of the platform’s staff and overhauling its moderation policies, didn’t have much to say while on stage, and mostly paced around.
“It sounds like some of those people you fired are in the audience,” Chappelle joked as the boos continued.
Chappelle then took a jab at his own audience, saying, “All these people who are booing, and I’m just pointing out the obvious, you have terrible seats.”
A Twitter user who posted a video of the awkward event wrote, “The response to Elon obviously speaks for itself, but @DaveChappelle just outright ripping on ‘the poors’ in the upper level that literally paid money to come see him perform may be the most disturbing part of this. Pretty gross.”
Phones weren’t allowed in the venue, but at least one person caught a video of the incident. The original video posted to Twitter was removed and the account either suspended or deleted. It has since been re-uploaded on YouTube and by other Twitter accounts. (One bootleg recording can be seen below — note there is foul language in the clip.)
Twitter user James Yu said he was at the show and tweeted about the encounter: “A good 80% of the stadium boos. 18k people. and he withers. Like absolutely turns into a corncob.”
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“Dave gave him so many chances to speak but he just put his hands in his pockets,” Yu wrote.
Yu wondered why Musk would even appear on stage with Chappelle to begin with, writing, “My only read is that he thought it would be a layup. Ppl feeling good after chapelle set. SF home turf.”
By the end of the night, Yu says he “actually felt bad” for Musk because of the embarrassment.
Musk responded to Sunday night’s antics by replying to a tweet on Monday.
Musk had previously tweeted a transphobic joke saying that his pronouns were “Prosecute/Fauci” and replied to his own tweet that “Truth resonates.”
A Twitter user replied, “So does a crowd full of boos.”
Musk defended himself by writing: “Technically, it was 90% cheers & 10% boos.”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1602305628734599168
(Chappelle himself has also come under fire for making transphobic jokes during his comedy shows.)
According to videos posted online, Chappelle would crack a joke and the audience would cheer and laugh, but when Musk would pipe up, the boos would drown him out.
“Dave, what should I say?” Musk said at one point, frustrated by the heckling.
“Don’t say nothing. It’ll only spoil the moment,” Chappelle said. “Do you hear that sound, Elon? That’s the sound of pending civil unrest. I can’t wait to see what store you decimate next, m———-r. You shut the f–k up.”
Chappelle quickly wrapped up the set, saying, “Booing is not the best thing you can do. I wish everybody in this auditorium the joy of feeling free and may your pursuit of happiness set you free. Amen,” he concluded.
Musk’s Twitter has recently come under investigation by the city of San Francisco over reports that the company set up illegal bedrooms in its headquarters. It’s presumed that the beds were for the remaining “hardcore” staffers to sleep overnight in the office to build Musk’s vision of “Twitter 2.0.”
San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection is seeking to inspect the headquarters at 1355 Market St. for potential code violations.
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