Dave Chappelle has a message for critics who mocked him for recently contracting the coronavirus: “Enjoy yourselves, motherf——-s, because I’m better now.”
The famous comedian took time during a wide-ranging video clip titled “Redemption Song” to address “cowards” who cheered his diagnosis, which came as he tried to find a balance between taking the contagion seriously and still working.
“When a hero stumbles, well the cowards rejoice,” he said in the clip released by Netflix. “Nothing feels better to a coward than to watch a brave guy fall. Now, you guys may have seen in the news that I caught coronavirus recently. And I did. Whoops.”
Mr. Chappelle detailed how he was told when the pandemic first started that some sense of normalcy would probably return in 2022.
“I said, ’there’s no f—ing way I can wait that long,’” he continued. “And I just tried to find a way that I could work. You see what we’ve been doing. … After all these months, after doing all these shows … my number was up and then I had ’the ’rona’. Aww. Cowards rejoice at a time like this because they’re so invested in being afraid. And when I said I had the coronavirus, the overwhelming majority of people wished me well. That said ’we hope you get better. Take care of yourself. We don’t want anything bad to happen to you.’
“But there was a faction of people — the cowards — who said, ’you see that, Dave Chappelle! That’s why we stay inside where it’s safe! And we never try anything.’”
The comedian then wished the “motherf——-s” well inside their homes before launching into social commentary on Edward Snowden, the Capitol riot, and the resolution to a dispute with Comedy Central thanks to fans and a new crop of executives.
The clip, first posted Friday on YouTube, has already garnered over 1.4 million views.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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