Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk faced a harsh crowd on Sunday night after getting invited on stage by comedian Dave Chappelle at his San Francisco show.
"Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world," Chappelle said at the end of his set. The reaction from the crowd was initially mixed, with some cheering before an outpouring of boos.
As Musk paced onstage with a microphone, the booing got louder.
"Cheers and boos, I see. Elon," Chappelle said. While phones weren't allowed inside the venue during the show, one person snuck in a device and captured the awkward exchange, which they posted on Twitter.
"Hey Dave," Musk said, which caused another round of boos.
"It sounds like some of the people you fired are in the audience," Chappelle joked, referencing how Musk fired thousands of Twitter employees after his acquisition of the site.
"All these people who are booing, and I'm just pointing out the obvious, you have terrible seats," Chappelle told the crowd in defense of Musk.
After the onslaught of boos, Chappelle tried to ease the tension inside the stadium, joking "[Musk's] whole business model is 'fuck Earth, I'm leaving anyway.'" He also tried to include Musk in the exchange, asking: "What kind of pussy they got up there? That's what we'll be doing."
Once the crowd died down, Musk awkwardly thanked Chappelle for having him onstage, leading to more boos.
"The first comedy club on Mars..." Chappelle repeated in an attempt to land the joke, to which Musk could only respond "yeah."
Even when the crowd started laughing at Chappelle's jokes again, the booing restarted every time Musk opened his mouth. Chappelle told the crowd that they could boo all they wanted, because he received a jetpack from Musk last Christmas.
"Dave, what should I say?" Musk asked the comedian.
"Don't say nothing. It'll only spoil the moment," Chappelle responded. "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, motherfucker. You shut the fuck up."
Chappelle grew hostile with the crowd in defense of Musk, and the mood began to change at the stadium.
"I wish everyone in this auditorium peace and the joy of feeling free," Chappelle said with irritation. "And your pursuit of happiness. Amen."
Another video showed Chris Rock joining the men onstage with a few others, at which point Chappelle asks one of them to shout his early 2000s catchphrase "I'm rich, bitch," into the mic. The man complies, and then hands the microphone to Musk, expecting him to do the same. His awkward attempt to recite the catchphrase caused another eruption of boos in the crowd.
While it's unclear from the videos exactly how many people were booing, some on social media claimed it was the vast majority of the stadium that can hold 18,000 people.
Was at the Dave Chapelle show at SF tonight and who comes on but Elon Musk!
A good 80% of the stadium boos. 18k people. and he withers. Like absolutely turns into a corncob.
"What should I say??" He says
Dave tries to salvage the situation but to no avail
— james yu (@jamesjyu) December 12, 2022
Since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion in October, Musk has branded himself as a friend to the far-right, tweeting over the weekend that his pronouns are "Prosecute/Fauci." The boos in San Francisco, a liberal city, may have been expected but the audience was in the stadium to see Chappelle, who has also made anti-trans comments recently.
The original video of the incident was taken down with no explanation but it was saved and circulated by other users.
The hostility he faced from the crowd certainly seemed to get under his skin in the video, but on Monday morning, he went back to his digital safe space to mock the crowd.
"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)," he wrote. "It's almost as if I've offended SF's unhinged leftists... but nahhh."
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 … but nahhh.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2022
