Dave Chappelle Tells NAACP Image Awards Crowd Don’t Be “Discouraged” In “Very Difficult Time”; Jokes “All My Netflix Checks Cleared”

deadline.com:

One month into Donald Trump’s second term, not a lot of people can follow Kamala Harris at the NAACP Image Awards, but Dave Chappelle can and did Saturday night.

Receiving the President’s Award during Saturday’s 56th NAACP Image Awards not long after the former Vice President was given the Chairman’s Award, the 2019 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor recipient put his honor and the venerated organization itself in the sharpest context and held it all together masterfully with a sharp streaming zinger. “You know, look, I won a lot of awards recently, but this one tonight is probably the most special award I’ve ever gotten, because it’s from this institution that represents these people, us, people of color, black people,” he began. “My god brother is here tonight, Ben Jealous,” Chappelle told a packed  Pasadena Civic Auditorium. “Ben used to be the president of the NAACP, and I asked him, I said, ‘What do you think?

What do you think I should say tonight?’ And Ben sent me a whole speech.” “But what was important, he said, in 1915, the movie Birth of a Nation came out, and had a hideous depiction of African Americans,” the comedian added. “And by 1927, the NAACP had opened its first office in Hollywood.

And from then, 100 years ago to this very night, they have been chipping away at this industry so that people like me can stand up in front of people and tell my story or our stories each and every artist in here, every opportunity we get, every time we’re on camera on stage, we just keep chipping away at this monster of a machine.” Of course, Chappelle being the master of delivery and the kicker that he is, that’s not where it ended. “But tonight, man, tonight, I feel invigorated because all my Netflix checks clear,” he