Elon Musk was met with a mixture of boos and cheers over the weekend when he made a surprise appearance during Dave Chappelle’s show in San Francisco.
The comedian welcomed the tech billionaire and Twitter owner to the Chase Center stage Sunday night. Videos of Musk’s appearance have circulated online.
“Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world,” Chappelle said, according to one video shared online by an account that no longer exists as of Monday morning.
The crowd erupted in cheers, which was quickly overwhelmed with audible cries of “boo!” as Musk, sporting an "I love Twitter" shirt, waved to the arena.
“Cheers and boos, I see,” Chappelle said as Musk shrugged to the audience.
“Controversy, buddy. It sounds like some of the people you fired are in the audience,” the comedian said to the laughter of the crowd and Musk.
Shortly after taking over Twitter, Musk's team announced widespread layoffs at the company in November. He has faced intense scrutiny over his leadership and position over loose content moderation policies.
“Dave, what should I say?” Musk asked at one point on stage.
James Yu, who was in the audience, tweeted: “A good 80% of the stadium boos. 18k people. And he withers. Like absolutely turns into a corncob.”
Yu noted that Musk didn't say much during his time on stage.
"Dave gave him so many chances to speak but he just put his hands in his pockets," Yu wrote. "I actually felt bad for him. I’m by no means an Elon fanboy, more a centrist. I wanted to shake him: for the love of god man, say something and pretend it’s a tweet!!"
Musk on Monday shared his recollection of the audience's reaction.
"Technically, it was 90% cheers & 10% boos (except during quiet periods), but, still, that’s a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life (frequent on Twitter). It’s almost as if I’ve offended SF’s unhinged leftists … but nahhh," he tweeted.
Chappelle, like Musk, is no stranger to controversy. He faced fierce criticism over his comments about the transgender community in a Netflix special released last year. Hundreds of LGBTQ activists and Netflix workers marched outside the company’s Los Angeles headquarters to protest the special after its release.
