Elon Musk Gets Booed On Stage At Dave Chappelle's Comedy Show
To say Elon Musk isn't everyone's favorite billionaire would be a massive understatement. The billionaire-playboy-turned-Twitter-owner has rubbed many the wrong way since buying the social media giant for $44 billion. His desire to swiftly optimize the company resulted in immediate, wide-reaching layoffs and many more who weren't escorted out of the building showed themselves out as a result of his many polarizing policy changes.
Then, there's the fact that he's allowed some of the world's most controversial voices back onto the platform, with notable reinstatements including Donald Trump, Kanye West, Andrew Tate, and Jordan Peterson. It was all in the name of protecting free speech and open dialog in a world he felt was becoming too dismissive of the proverbial "other side." Musk also has staunch supporters, but if his recent appearance at Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock's San Francisco comedy show is anything to judge, they're well outnumbered. Musk hit the stage to drowning boos.
How much does San Francisco hate Musk, really?
The original report suggested that Musk was booed for 10 minutes straight and unable to get a word in edgewise. The lone clip we've been able to find, courtesy of a media producer on Twitter named Steven Goffman, is just less than five minutes. While the boos were certainly loud at first, you could hear a few supporters sprinkled throughout, and they subsided enough to let Dave Chappelle crack a few jokes about the rough crowd.
Turns out Twitter can, in fact, be real life. https://t.co/FFpups1yEy pic.twitter.com/41jcZgdDR4
— Steven Goffman (@SteveGoffman) December 12, 2022
Musk appeared to embrace the hate, however, with an emphatic victory pump to show his hecklers just how unbothered he was. And Chappelle masterfully lightened the moment with some classic rich guy jokes. Elon Musk was holding a microphone, presumably to make some sort of speech. He didn't address the crowd with much of an audible response, though he did thank Chappelle for having him on stage.
The crowd response isn't too surprising considering the show was held in a prominent corner of Silicon Valley, the very same region that's battling against a work culture shift seeking to reinstate long working hours and stringent reporting policies to meet burgeoning tech demands. Musk is undoubtedly enemy number one in that battle based on his most recent moves, including the sudden appearance of bedrooms at Twitter's headquarters to accommodate staff who are too busy to catch their Zs at home.