(NOTE LANGUAGE, CONTENT) “If this is what being canceled is about, I love it,” Dave Chappelle told a cheering crowd of more than 18,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl Thursday night, where his documentary Untitled screened.
The Hollywood Reporter noted a galaxy of stars in the audience, including Brad Pitt, and Tiffany Haddish, while Chappelle was joined onstage by more, including Steve Wonder, Snoop, Talib Kweli, Lizzo and Jon Hamm.
Untitled untracks Chappelle’s series of comedy concerts he staged to help his Ohio hometown get back on its feed amid the pandemic.
“I don’t know what to tell you, except I’m a bad motherf*****,” Chappelle said to cheers, in statements that referenced recent controversy about The Closer, his final in a series of Netflix comedy specials. “F*** Twitter,” he added. “This is real life.”
Chappelle noted he was starting a “kindness conspiracy” to combat cancel culture, a theme Stevie Wonder highlighted in his on-stage comments. “What we need to cancel is hate,” the legendary performer said. “What we need to cancel is fear…”
Wonder added, “I want us to cancel the idea of feeling that we don’t want anyone to laugh because if we don’t laugh, we cry. And I don’t believe that was God’s intention — ever.”
The love fest for Mark Twain Award winner Chappelle comes after The Closer took flak on Twitter for jokes some claimed were transphobic. Former Dear White People showrunner Jaclyn Moore, who recently transitioned, took to Twitter to say she was done with Netflix, “as long as they continue to put out and profit from blatantly and dangerously transphobic content,” referring to Chappelle’s Untitled.
GLAAD also flamed what the organization called Chappelle’s “brand of ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities.”
(Video contains uncensored profanity.)
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