Comedian Dave Chappelle tore into right-wing pundit Candace Owens last summer in his 8:46 comedy special, which was dedicated to George Floyd and aired on Chappelle’s Netflix station on YouTube.
“That rotten bitch, she’s the worst,” Chappelle said in the June 2020 stand-up set. “I can’t think of a worse way to make money. She’s the most articulate idiot I’ve ever seen in my f**king life.”
He also said he would “kick her in the p***y.”
On his recent podcast, The Midnight Miracle, Chappelle asked co-hosts Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli, “There is no possible way that I owe Candace Owens an apology, is there?” They both responded immediately with “F**k that!”
“So the verdict is no apology, right?” Chappelle ponders, pointing out that in comedy, “you shouldn’t apologize for jokes,” calling it a “very bad precedent to set.”
He then says, “By the way, Candace Owens, I’m sorry I called you ‘articulate.'”
Chappelle defended his jokes about the conservative commentator in the Netflix special, saying she made “cruel and dangerous” comments about Floyd, the victim of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin‘s deliberate murder.
The podcast episode, titled, The Grift That Keeps on Giving, also featured an appearance by comedian Jon Stewart, who also referenced Owens.
“Here’s why you were so effective in what you said about Candace Owens,” the former Daily Show host told Chappelle. “Because they have held you up as an avatar of truth-telling because you’re willing to speak your art in the way that you want to speak it.”
“Her life is provocation, her brand is provocation, that’s how she makes her money,” said Stewart of Owens, adding that she offers “provocation and a troll that’s meant to increase brand recognition” rather than a “genuine offer of argument and exchange of ideas.”
The Midnight Miracle podcast airs on Luminary and is billed as a show that invites listeners “into the minds of cultural icons” Bey, Kweli and Chappelle, who have all been longtime friends. Other guests have included actor Jon Hamm, The Roots‘ drummer Questlove and comedian-actor Chris Rock.
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