Dave Chappelle has gifted fans with a surprise free stand-up special on YouTube – and as always, he’s not pulling any punches when it comes to talking about the real issues.
In his first public stage performance in 87 days, Dave Chappelle performed front of a mask-wearing audience in his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio, on June 6 for his surprise stand-up special called 8:46.
“Normally I wouldn’t show you something so unrefined, I hope you understand,” Dave Chappelle captioned the 27 minutes and 20-second special, which was named after the amount of time it took 46-year-old security officer George Floyd to die at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Famous for providing an unsanitised commentary on racial issues, Chappelle used the opportunity to give his unabashed take on the death of Floyd, along with the resulting protests across the US against police brutality and systemic racism.
“It’s hard to figure out what to say about George Floyd, so I’m not going to say it yet,” Chappelle explained as he flipped through a black notebook, later adding, “I got to tell you, this is like the first concert in North American since all this shit happened, so like it or not, it’s history. It’s going to be in the books.”
Fans of Chappelle’s previous stand-up comedy are in for a treat too, with the comedian referencing one of his old famous jokes about MTV asking for Ja Rule’s thoughts on the terrorist attacks on 9/11, saying: “Do we want to see a celebrity right now? Do we give a fuck what Ja Rule thinks?”
He continued, “This is the streets talking for themselves, they don’t need me right now. I kept my mouth shut. And I’ll keep my mouth shut. Don’t think my silence is complicit,” Chappelle said, adding, “Why would anyone care what their favourite comedian thinks after they saw a police officer kneel on a man’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds?”
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He added, “I can’t get that number out of my head.”
Check out 8:46 by Dave Chappelle:
