As two of the greatest living stand-up comedians, Dave Chappelle and Katt Williams have an undeniable mutual respect.
Chappelle told a hilarious story about Williams and internet imposters on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” several years ago.
Chappelle was one of what felt like only three Black comedians in existence about whom Williams didn’t talk shit during his now 50-million-plus-viewed “Club Shay Shay” podcast interview with Shannon Sharpe. In fact, Williams has gone on record several times in praise of Chappelle.
Understanding their mutual admiration is essential when unpacking Chappelle’s routine at the San Jose Improv comedy club on Friday, when Chappelle finally spoke publicly on Williams’ interview.
Headlines are going hard insisting that Chappelle “slammed” Williams, bracing everyone for an internet-breaking war between two comedy titans with the potential for Will-Smith-slap levels of viral longevity.
But to understand Chappelle is to recognize that won’t ever happen.
Giving even more shine to what could go down as the most viral interview of all time (even “SNL” got in on it!), Chappelle got a few things off of his wife-beatered chest during his special guest appearance on the San Jose, Calif. leg of Deon Cole’s “My New Normal” tour. The recorded clip – taken with what looks and sounds like someone’s iPhone 3GS – suggests that Chappelle spent all of onstage time addressing Williams’ interview.
“I love everybody but I love Katt Williams more than a lot of people, and that n***a is wild,” he said, before addressing Williams’ vitriol for Cedric the Entertainer and Steve Harvey – both of whom he accused of stealing jokes.
“I’m at war with the Illuminati too, but what part of the war is ethering Cedric the Entertainer?” Chappelle asked. “Cedric…he’s old, he’s fat, leave this n***a alone. Steve Harvey doesn’t even do this anymore.”
It might be hard to tell if Chappelle is defending Ced or insulting him. But if you consider that Chappelle has shared a stage with each of these men, it’s unlikely that he’s doing either — he just mined the situation for a joke. Besides, this isn’t exactly a character attack: Ced is getting up there in age and he is a tad portly.
Indeed, Chappelle has never shied away from using his friends as the butt of any of his jokes, which is perhaps one of the most misunderstood aspects of his routines in which people assume he’s punching down just because. He always qualifies the jokes he makes about friends with love and reverence, as he did with Kevin Hart in his routine about going to see his show with his son.
The “jealousy” he showed for Hart’s mega-stardom is similar to the “jealousy” he discusses in “The Dreamer” about when Chris Rock got off a perfect joke at his (and Will Smith’s) expense following the on-stage attack of Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl in 2022.
Chappelle mentioning that the Club Shay Shay interview came out the same day of his own divisive stand-up special “The Dreamer” — which was actually three days later but still completely distracted from “The Dreamer’s” Netflix release – should be a clue that the hate is not real hate – feigned jealousy is what he does.
Williams’ claims that he read eight real books a day every day for a year as a child was likely the most eye-rolling aspect of the whole Club Shay Shay interview, so Chappelle snatched that low-hanging fruit, as he’s wont to do.
“And this n***a comes out and says I read 3,000 books by the time I was 7 years old,” he said.” What the f**k are you taking about?”
Chappelle also pointed out that Williams only took shots at Black artists, insisting that it’s a move their white comic contemporaries wouldn’t take against their own.
“What part of the game is this? He only ethered n****s,” Chappelle said. “He didn’t say anything about any of these white boys. None of these white boys function like that. Katt is one of the best painters in the game. Why you drawing all ugly pictures of us? Stop.”
He (kinda, sorta) defended Tiffany Haddish – who has been in Williams’ crosshairs for years – admitting that he “doesn’t disagree” with his assessment of her but adding that he doesn’t understand why Williams needs to criticize her in a public forum.
“Hurt people hurt people…he does it all the time….he didn’t do nothing wrong? Katt didn’t do nothing wrong?” Chappelle said. “I f*** with Katt hard, but DeRay…just tell me what part of the game is about telling on other n****as? What part of the game f***s up another n**a’s paper?”
In what seemed like a harsh criticism of Williams, Chappelle always circled back to admit that he’s the “arbiter of truth” – probably not a claim he’d make if he flatly believed Williams was lying about even a handful of his Club Shay Shay claims (not involving book reading).
Nothing in Chappelle’s routine seemed planned – he improvised with the deftness that only a three-plus-decade veteran could. But therein lies his genius: He was able to pop Williams on the wrist for coming at their comedian friends without disagreeing with the content of Williams’ words or writing an entire routine.
Cole hit the stage with Chappelle to let the audience know that Casamigos might be contributing to his rant, which Chappelle seemed to confirm: “It’s fun being drunk, isn’t it Deon?” But Chappelle might not have been drunk at all; part of his genius is that you need to put on a tin foil hat to discern how he actually feels about a thing during his routines.
Chappelle’s biggest on-stage tell was his admission that he’s experienced things that would “make you cry.” It felt like he was low-key telling the audience that he sides with Williams, but that he couldn’t blow up his relationships the way Williams did.
Williams and Chappelle both have reputations for speaking out against the status quo off-stage at the risk of career condemnation, while several of their contemporaries (*cough*Kevin Hart*cough*) generally go along to get along. Even if Chappelle wasn’t happy about Williams going hardbody on Club Shay Shay, it’s possible that the true envy lies in the fact that Chappelle knows he could never get away with What Williams did.
Chappelle jokingly told a woman in the audience not to tweet anything he’s saying for “fear” of Williams coming after him. If that ever happened, it wouldn’t be because of this routine.