This week, video was released of stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle’s acceptance of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in late October, and Chappelle’s fierce and hilarious defense of the First Amendment and the right for comedy to be no-holds-barred is on full display.
Chapelle began, “I like not knowin’ what’s going to happen. I like makin’ memories. Sometime I do all this crazy s*** around my colleagues just so they can tell their friends I did it. Rather than talk about myself, just briefly, I want to just talk about my genre. Stand-up comedy is an incredibly American genre. I don’t think any other country can produce this many comedians. Unbeknownst to many people in this audience, I don’t think there’s opinion that exists in this country that is not represented in a comedy club by somebody. Each and every one of you has a chance of bein’ in the room.”
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