Dave Chappelle told a New York City audience that Charlie Kirk’s murder had left him feeling unexpectedly better, drawing criticism from his widow as another comedy podcast faced a sponsor exodus over a joke about the slain activist.
The comedian made the sick admission during a Friday night performance on his Karmageddon tour, describing a reaction he acknowledged was troubling to express publicly.
Kirk, the Turning Point USA co-founder, was fatally shot while speaking at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in September 2025.
“I feel f*cked up saying this. It’s scary being a public speaker. And I mean look, ever since that guy Charlie Kirk got murdered … and I shouldn’t say this publicly but, I feel better,” Chappelle remarked.
Via Madison Square Garden Dave Chappell, guess those Trans Jokes getting stale so #CharlieKirk Jokes is in replacement. Why we just can’t let that man Rest he has kids at the end of the day. Like him or not. #tagme @Akademiks @DailyLoud @raphousetv2 pic.twitter.com/5oKnZk0fSg
— MeSoViral (@PostViralRepost) November 7, 2026
“I know I shouldn’t say that, but it’s just a feeling,” Chappelle told the crowd. “I didn’t ask to feel this way. I just be driving around like, ‘Why am I in such a good mood? Oh!’”
The performance added to a dispute over jokes about Kirk’s death after Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan, known as Pumps, laughed at a social media post about exhuming his body during an episode of their I’ve Had It podcast.
The hosts were reading posts mocking Republicans after Democrats made major gains in Tuesday’s elections. The jokes included imagined new names for landmarks, increasingly elaborate pronouns and changes to Chick-fil-A’s Sunday closing schedule.
😷 Hold Anthony Fauci accountable for the Wuhan lab, the COVID cover-up, and the questions he refused to answer. 😷 Help Freedom Watch take the fight to federal court! ➡️➡️➡️ DONATE NOW!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Then she delivered the line that triggered the controversy. ‘We’re digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again.’ Welch and Sullivan erupted in laughter, according to the account of the episode.
The post appeared at the end of a sequence of exaggerated election jokes, but the references to Kirk shifted the controversy from mockery of political opponents to a joke about an actual killing. Cash App, Shopify and Chewy were among sponsors reported to have severed ties with the program.
Podcasters Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan can't stop laughing at the thought of digging up Charlie Kirk's corpse and "doing it" again to him.
After laughing for 30 seconds straight, the women falsely claimed that Tyler Robinson was a 'MAGA person.'
They will celebrate your… pic.twitter.com/KQ2bwtVIO7
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 5, 2026
“We do not condone violence of any kind, and we are no longer sponsors of this podcast,” Cash App announced on X.
Welch and Sullivan subsequently apologized through the show’s Instagram account. They acknowledged laughing at an insensitive joke and said political disagreements did not make gun violence funny. They also announced a donation to Everytown for Gun Safety.
“On Thursday’s show, we laughed at a joke about Charlie Kirk. It was an insensitive joke, and we should not have laughed. We regret it, and we apologize,” their statement read. “Whatever our political differences, there is nothing funny about gun violence. We’ve long supported common-sense gun safety reform.”
Erika Kirk, the activist’s widow, criticized the commentary from comedians and podcasters in a Sunday post, arguing that turning political assassination into entertainment ignored the suffering of surviving relatives.
“To see leftist podcasters, comedians, and commentators laugh about political assassination as though it’s entertainment and the destruction of a human life is a punchline, is beyond disgusting,” Kirk tweeted.
“My husband, Charlie Kirk, was killed in an act of political violence, something our two children and I will live with every day for the rest of our lives,” she wrote.
Erika warned that laughing about assassination encouraged a damaging attitude toward political violence. “A culture that laughs at assassination is one of profound moral decay. It threatens the very foundation of our country and the principles that hold our democracy together,” she wrote.
Her response also appealed to people who disagreed with her husband’s views. “You do not have to agree with someone’s politics to recognize the value of their life. This should not be so hard”, she wrote, before insisting, “Political violence must never be something this country tolerates, excuses, or celebrates.”
Conservative commentators pointed out that Kirk had defended Chappelle when the comedian was attacked during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in May 2022.
Benny Johnson recalled that Charlie Kirk had defended Chappelle after the incident, arguing that the comedian was now joking about the death of someone who had previously spoken on his behalf.
“When Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage, Charlie stood up for him. After Charlie was murdered in an act of political violence himself, Chappelle is joking about it,” Benny Johnson wrote on X. Megyn Kelly shared Johnson’s post with a one-word response, “Despicable.”
“>Jack Posobiec also recalled the attack on Chappelle, noting that the assailant had attributed his actions to the comedian’s jokes about transgender people. Posobiec questioned Chappelle’s reaction to Kirk’s murder in light of the earlier incident.
Kirk’s 2022 post had sharply criticized then-Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón for declining to charge the man who attacked Chappelle as Kirk believed he should have been charged.
“By refusing to charge the armed maniac who attacked Dave Chappelle on stage, George Gascon is sending a clear message that public acts of political violence are justifiable – and even encouraged – against anyone who dares speak out against The Regime,” Kirk wrote. “It’s Sinister & Un-American.”
Chappelle himself had described Kirk’s killing in very different terms in his Netflix special The Unstoppable. “If you talk for a living and see Charlie Kirk get murdered that way, I’m gonna be honest, I was shook,” he said, acknowledging how frightening the attack was for another public speaker.
Kirk’s accused killer, Tyler Robinson, 23, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges. No trial date has been set. Robinson’s lawyers want a trial in 2029, arguing they need time to review tens of thousands of prosecution files and investigate possible mitigating evidence relevant to sentencing.
The defense is also seeking to bar cameras from an upcoming hearing. Erika Kirk has urged the court to begin Robinson’s trial in 2027.