Comedy legend Dave Chappelle has released a surprise Netflix special entitled 8:46 dedicated to the death of George Floyd and the reaction in America.
Dressed in black and speaking to a socially distant crowd wearing face masks in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Chappelle said of the gig held amidthe Covid-19 lockdown: "Like it or not, it's history."
He hailed young people who had taken to the streets to protest in the wake of George Floyd's death for their "amazing work" in a "f***ing weird time."
Chappelle described smoking a joint and watching Apocalypse Now in the early 1990s when an earthquake struck in Los Angeles and said he was certain that "I very possibly might die" in the shake he guessed lasted around 35 seconds.
Taking cues from a notebook on stage at times, Chappelle said he didn't watch the video of Floyd's alleged murder initially because he knew he couldn't "unsee" it. But following calls for celebrities to speak up, he said protests showed the "streets talking for themselves".
"They don't need me right now ... but don't think my silence is complicit," he said.
Chappelle listed some of the other black people who have died recently at the hands of police including Eric Garner and Michael Brown, and called out media commentators and author Candice Owen, who has highlighted Floyd's rap sheet as "the most articulate idiot I've ever seen".
While Chappelle is renowned for his searing take on topics from the transgender community to the #MeToo movement and child sex abuse, he admitted at one point "this is not funny at all".
"I've got some p***y jokes too I could do," he quipped, before summing up the set by saying he trusted his audience and we need to keep the stage open for debate.
"David Chappelle understands what the f*** he is seeing and these streets will speak for themselves whether I am alive or dead," he said.
"I trust you guys. I love you guys. We'll keep this space open. This is the last stronghold for civil discourse. After this sh*t it's just rat a tat tat."
"I loved Kobe Bryant. He died the day I won a Grammy. That’s why I didn’t show up at the Grammys, because Kobe died. They had both of his f-----g jersey numbers hanging up – 8, 24. Well that’s my birthday. I cried like a baby." - Dave Chappelle
CNN's Don Lemon said in response to being called out by Chappelle in the show that he welcomed the criticism and it was "great he's using his platform to talk about this".
"Dave Chappelle is my favourite comedian and I do care what Dave Chappelle says ... I'm actually honoured to be memorialised in a Dave Chappelle special" he said on CNN.
"The young people out there in the streets don't really care what we have to say," he said about the media establishment.
"But I do think that is not a moment for modesty, it's a moment that we should all be using our platform to do whatever we can ... to show these young people that we support them."
