Elon Musk probably still has some fans in Silicon Valley, but it seems they weren’t in attendance at Dave Chappelle’s show last night at the San Francisco Chase Center. When Chappelle brought the controversial Twitter CEO out on stage, he was heartily booed by the crowd in a widely-shared viral clip.
Chappelle introduced Musk by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world.” Musk responded to the loud jeering by quoting the famous Rick James Chappelle Show sketch, yelling “I’m rich, bitch.” Noting the enthusiastically unenthusiastic reaction to his guest, Chappelle posited that some of the people Musk had fired and laid off from Twitter were in attendance, a reference to the widespread unrest at the social media company since Musk took over in late October. (Also, Chappelle may need to update his intro the next time he has Musk on: The Guardian reported on December 9 that the diminishing value of Tesla stock could actually put his “richest person” title in jeopardy. Forbes’ “Real-Time Billionaires List” also recently moved Bernard Arnault, founder of LVMH, ahead of Musk.)
The reaction to Musk is not that surprising, considering it was a Silicon Valley crowd in a liberal city. Musk has spent much of the past few days embracing COVID-19 conspiracy theories and invoking anti-transgender and nonbinary tropes, sometimes in the same tweet. The morning after his public razzing, he tweeted, “The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters.” further aligning himself with contemporary right-wing ideology. As The Atlantic wrote, “Musk’s logic—that wayward leftism has given a lifelong moderate liberal no choice but to support right-wing causes—is a common trope among far-right activists.” (Musk also urged “independent-minded voters” to support Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections, and has positioned himself as a victim of attacks by Democrats.)
In a December 12 tweet responding to what happened at the Chase Center, Musk wrote, “Technically, it was 90% cheers & 10% boos (except during quiet periods), but, still, that’s a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life (frequent on Twitter). It’s almost as if I’ve offended SF’s unhinged leftists.”
Chappelle urged the crowd not to boo Musk, saying, “I wish everybody in this auditorium the joy of feeling free and may your pursuit of happiness set you free.”
In recent years, Chappelle has made a point of supporting or associating himself with controversial A-listers like J.K. Rowling, Kanye West, DaBaby, and now Musk. Though he’s had several big-budget standup specials and even Emmy nominations, Chappelle has been roundly criticized by LGBTQ+ activists and had a show canceled in Minnesota this summer due to his conservative views on gender identity.
According to CNN, Musk at one point tried to address the booing crowd, but was urged not to by Chappelle, who said, “Don’t say nothing. It’ll only spoil the moment. You hear that sound, Elon? That’s the sound of pending civil unrest.”