Comedian Dave Chappelle set off a firestorm on the right after a joke about Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
In a clip circulating on X, Chappelle can be heard telling the crowd: “Ever since that guy Charlie Kirk got murdered, and I shouldn’t say this publicly but... I feel better.” The audience laughed.
The full context of the bit isn’t clear from the 47-second clip, and Chappelle has not commented publicly.
The backlash started with Rob Henderson, an author and senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, who posted his own version of the line shortly after the show.
“‘I’m so happy Charlie Kirk was killed. I can’t help it, it’s involuntary.’ -Dave Chappelle tonight at Madison Square Garden,” Henderson wrote. His post drew nearly 2 million views.
When Daily Wire writer Megan Basham asked whether Chappelle “really” said it, Henderson replied, “Yes I saw it live about 2 hours ago.” Henderson added that he was Kirk’s last long-form interview guest and that “the second sentence struck me as particularly odd; forcing yourself to be voluntarily giddy about someone’s murder would be strange.”
Katie Miller, the wife of incoming White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, went after the event’s ticketing giant. “Hey @LiveNation is this something agree with?” she wrote.
“This isn’t even comedy. It’s just sick…” wrote right-wing influencer Benny Johnson.
Andrew Kolvet, a longtime Kirk associate at Turning Point USA, responded by posting John 15:18-25, which begins: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”
Others in MAGA world were furious. One X account called “Lucky Teter,” with the handle @TheMagaHulk, wrote that “the New York City crowd laughs like a bunch of hyenas.” An account called “Canadian Republican” posted a graphic that read “F--- DAVE CHAPPELLE” and called the comedian “a piece of s---.”
“What an evil thing to say,” wrote an account called “Conservative Girl.” “Dave Chappelle is soulless. I’m losing all faith in humanity.”
Some on the right pointed out the irony, given Chappelle’s past popularity with conservatives over his comedy about transgender people.
“Charlie Kirk got killed for having the exact same stance on trans issues as Dave Chappelle made 5 comedy specials about,” wrote the right-wing account Roman Helmet Guy.
Activist Drew Pavlou predicted that “celebrations of Charlie Kirk’s murder will be the ‘drag queen story time’ of Woke 2.”
Kirk was assassinated in September 2025 while speaking at Utah Valley University.