It’s now no secret that Dave Chappelle walked offstage a few days ago during his Hartford, Connecticut gig during the Oddball Comedy Tour. Yes, it is big news (it isn’t really but hold on and work with me here). People are talking about it. A lot.
As to which, Chappelle spoke about it during a tour stop in Chicago where he expressed hope for North Korea to drop bombs on Hartford if and when it ever attacks the U.S. For this, Dave Chappelle deserves an award. Never you mind the fact that Hartford, Connecticut is a fair and decent place: during Chappelle’s apparent “meltdown” (those quotations are there for a reason, folks!) the Hartford crowd were complete and utter dicks to Chappelle.
The Hollywood Reporter sums up Dave’s quip about Hartford:
“I don’t want anything bad to happen to the United States,” Chappelle said, “but if North Korea ever drops a nuclear bomb on this country, I swear to God I hope it lands in Hartford, Connecticut.”
He added:
“I wanted to pull a reverse Kramer and call ’em all crackers or something crazy like that. I know that sh*t’ll be on YouTube. ‘Funnyman Dave Chappelle calls a room full of white people “crackers.” ‘ Couldn’t do that. I felt bad when Kramer did that shit to us.”
Chappelle had every right to walk off the stage: dude is an artist. He isn’t Whitesnake, and he isn’t the kind of guy to just come out and play the hits. If you’re the type of audience that thinks it’s OK to go to a comedy show and yell out what you want to hear as opposed to what the artist in front of you has to offer, maybe you should go back and put on a DVD, pay your refrigerator $6 a beer, and wait half an hour to pee behind the couch. Go ahead. Because you’re certainly not welcome at a comedy show where a particularly brilliant comedian has been crafting new material for you to hear.
So when Dave Chappelle says that he hopes that maybe North Korea drops a bomb on Hartford, Connecticut… maybe you should think about the way the Hartford crowd treated him. Just my 2¢… click on over to my colleague Josh Kurp’s great roundup from the night in question if you’re still confused as to why this Hartford show might go down as Chappelle’s “JUDAS” moment.
(h/t: THR)