Dave Chappelle soundly rejected comparisons of Charlie Kirk and Martin Luther King Jr. The comedian told a crowd in Washington, D.C., while filming his new Netflix special, “The Unstoppable,” that though Kirk and King both “got shot in the neck,” the former was simply “a motherf–king internet personality.”
“They said Charlie Kirk is this generation’s Martin Luther King,” Chappelle shared in a clip of the comedy special that premiered Friday. “No, he’s not,” he added in a sing-song voice.
You can watch the segment in the video below.
“They both got murdered in a terrible fashion. They both got shot in the neck, but that’s about where those similarities end,” he continued. “Charlie Kirk is a motherf–king internet personality. No, by design, fundamentally, you can’t function like Dr. King. Internet n—-s are negative because they have to be, ’cause nobody will engage them unless they say sh-t that makes them upset. That’s Charlie Kirk.”
“Can you imagine Dr. King was behaving like Charlie Kirk?” Chappelle asked before assuming a King-esque voice. “Smash that like button and subscribe. Follow me for more content like this. I believe all Black people should be free, change my mind.”
The comedian’s latest special, “Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable” was filmed in D.C. in October and was dropped on Netflix with relatively little fanfare.
In the special, Chappelle also defended his decision to participate in the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia. He acknowledged being on the receiving end of “a lot of grief” and said of Bill Maher specifically, “I’ve never said this publicly but f–k that guy. I’m so f–king tired of his little smug, cracker-a– commentary.”
He also said he does not “feel guilty at all” about performing and added, “These motherf–kers act like because I did a comedy festival in Saudi Arabia I somehow betrayed my principles … They said, ‘Well, Saudi Arabia killed a journalist’ and rest in peace Jamal Khashoggi. I’m sorry that he got murdered in such a heinous fashion. And also, look bro, Israel’s killed 240 journalists in the last three months so I didn’t know y’all were still counting.”
Chappelle also touched on Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension from late night following the latter’s own comments about Kirk. “I’ll take money from Saudi Arabia any day just so I can say no over here. It feels good to be free,” he proclaimed. “And I know that the people in Saudi Arabia can’t say all the things that I was allowed to say. But a deal’s a deal, and the king said that I could say these things. So I looked at it like I was on a diplomatic mission: I’ve gotta bring pussy jokes to the Middle East.”
Kimmel was suspended by ABC for comments he made following Kirk’s death.
“The Unstoppable” is now streaming on Netflix.
