Dave Chappelle returned jubilantly to the stage in Minneapolis on Thursday night to blast the woke protesters trying to cancel him, joking to the crowd of fans: ‘I’d respect them more if there was at least one black person!’
DailyMail.com was at the sold-out show at the Varsity Theater to hear Chappelle rattle off jokes about cancel culture and his ongoing difficulty using pronouns.
Chappelle, 48, said he found it confusing ‘when the reproductive system is made out of words and semantics.’
‘Comedy is just comedy,’ Chappelle said when he took the stage to cheers, also noting that 50 years ago, George Carlin was arrested for performing his ‘seven words you can’t say on television’ routine.
Other targets of Chappelle’s jokes included celebrities— including Chris Rock, Will Smith, and Louis CK. Meanwhile, he interacted with the audience.
In particular, he kept coming back to a teen boy in the audience who said he wanted to be a comedian. Chappelle advised him to stay away from trans jokes.
Concluding his routine, Chappelle urged his fans to greet animosity with love. And despite a small number of protesters who petitioned the show, the fans walked away smiling.
The protesters didn’t stop fans from coming to the show, some coming in costumes including at least one dressed as Prince, a nod to one of Chappelle’s most famous sketches.
Chris Ryan, 60, said he felt Dave Chapelle offers a unique perspective. ‘I think he’s a thoughtful and intelligent person,’ Ryan said. ‘And I think he speaks without fear.’
‘Cancel culture has taken too big a position in our society,’ Ryan said.
‘I think that if we’re not going to be divided, if we are going to be unified, we should be able to say what we want when we want, especially if it’s not mean spirited, and I don’t believe this work is mean spirited.’
Maddy Russell, 27, came to the show with her mother, Wenn Townsend, 52.
