Comedian Dave Chapelle held a surprise performance at San Francisco’s Masonic auditorium Thursday night. There was a strict blackout on photos and video recording, but SF Gate’s Dan Gentile was in the audience to report on the show. Apparently, when it came to the current state of San Francisco, Chapelle did not hold back.
“What the f—k happened to this place?” Chapelle asked the crowd.
The comedian said he went out to dinner in the Tenderloin a few nights earlier and witnessed a person defecating in front of the restaurant.
The city is now “half ‘Glee,’ half zombie movie,” he joked, before exclaiming: “Y’all [N-words] need a Batman!”
It’s not the first time San Francisco has been compared to Gotham.
Chapelle has stirred up a number of controversies lately, from his offensive remarks about trans people to his affordable housing opposition in the town where he lives. But when it comes to San Francisco, he may have a point. The mayor herself has expressed exasperation with the city's open-air drug use and police staffing shortages. A number of businesses have pulled out, citing rising crime.
Nobody asked for Elon Musk’s opinion, but he has weighed in too. The Tesla founder endorsed Chapelle’s comments on Twitter:
“The disaster that is downtown SF, once beatiful [sic] and thriving, now a derelict zombie apocalypse, is due to the woke mind virus,” said Musk, who was booed off the stage at a Chapelle standup five months ago.