As the head of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk was pugnacious but mostly highly respected. Since his takeover of Twitter, the public image seems to have changed. When the billionaire enters the stage as comedian Dave Chappelle’s surprise guest, the audience vents its displeasure.
The takeover of Twitter appears to be doing lasting damage to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s reputation. On Sunday, the social network’s new owner was booed off the stage at a performance by star comedian Dave Chappelle in San Francisco. Videos of the unsuccessful surprise visit are doing the rounds on the Internet. Ironically, on Musk’s platform, the self-proclaimed champion of freedom of speech and expression, they seem to be deleted again after a short time.
Chappelle performed at the $500 million Chase Center Sunday night local time. The multifunctional arena holds a good 18,000 spectators and was only opened in 2019. At the end of his standup show, Chappelle asks viewers to “make some noise for the richest person in the world,” various shots show. Applause prevails for a brief moment. As Musk waves both hands at the audience, the boos escalate. Twitter is based in San Francisco.
The unexpectedly negative reaction seems to surprise the new Twitter boss. Musk turns to Chappelle and shrugs. With boos getting louder and louder, the comedian tries to lighten the situation after a while with a joke: “It sounds like some of the people you fired are in the audience tonight,” jokes Chappelle. Musk laid off at least half of the 7,500-strong workforce in the days following the Twitter takeover. In addition, around 80 percent of the contract service providers were terminated.
After the boos continue, Chappelle makes a second attempt to salvage the situation. “All the people who boo have terrible seats,” the comedian shoots at his own viewers with little success. He then tells them, apparently irritated, that they can boo Musk as long as they like. “But the guy doesn’t even intend to die on Earth,” jokes Chappelle. Instead, the business model of the billionaire, who also owns the space company SpaceX, envisages him flying to Mars.
The criticism of Musk is allegedly not only directed against the mass layoffs on Twitter. The billionaire also ran to end the platform’s alleged censorship of supposedly conservative or Republican positions. Since then, however, mainly accounts that were blocked due to anti-constitutional and anti-democratic statements have been allowed again. Since then, Musk has allowed himself to be drawn into spreading conspiracy theories more than once.
Chappelle himself is also controversial. In the past, he has repeatedly joked about trans people who were perceived as transphobic. In addition, an appearance in November on the US show “Saturday Night Live” caused a stir when he made fun of Kanye West and his critics, replicating anti-Semitic stereotypes, among other things.
(This article was first published on Monday, December 12, 2022.)
