Dave Chappelle asked the crowd at his comedy show to “make some noise for the world’s richest man”.
They did — lots of booing.
It was a rather uncomfortable appearance for Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, at Chappelle’s show with Chris Rock on Sunday night in San Francisco.
At the end of the show, Chappelle spoke about the need to get along and communicate with people with different viewpoints and perspectives.
He invited Mr Musk onstage. The billionaire obliged, wearing an “I Love Twitter” T-shirt. Loud boos filled the arena for several minutes, along with some cheers, too.
Chappelle joked: “Sounds like some of those people you fired.”
As the boos continued to ring out, the comic pointed out: “All you people booing, and I’m just pointing out the obvious — are in terrible seats.”
Twitter has gone through massive changes since Mr Musk took over the social media platform, with the first few weeks of his tenure seeing widespread layoffs and the restoration of several blocked accounts, including those of former president Donald Trump and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Chappelle asked the crowd not to boo Mr Musk as he needs him to open up the first comedy club on Mars. He also asked Mr Musk if he could help Black Star’s Talib Kweli, who Chappelle said had been banned from Twitter.
Mr Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, responded by saying: “Twitter customer service here.”
He stayed onstage and shook hands with many of the performers. Visitors had been required to lock up their phones during the show, but a few videos of the encounter made their way online.
Mr Musk did not comment directly about the events of the evening, but at about 4.25am San Francisco time, he tweeted a message condemning the “woke mind virus”.
Anti-"wokeism” is a conservative backlash to progressive political discourse that seeks to highlight racial and other modern and historical prejudices.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Elon Musk — in pictures
