Say what you will about Dave Chappelle, he doesn’t duck the mess. While most big names are steering clear of the Charlie Kirk conversation, Chappelle jumps right into it in his surprise Netflix special, The Unstoppable, and he goes directly at the chatter trying to frame Kirk as this generation’s Martin Luther King Jr. Entertainment Weekly picked up the bit, and yeah, it’s spicy.
Chappelle on the Kirk-MLK comparison
In the special, Chappelle says he’s been hearing people rush to crown Kirk as a modern MLK. He’s not buying it, and he doesn’t pretend to.
No, he’s not. That’s a reach.
He pushes the joke to a dark place, saying the only real overlap he sees is the way they died: both murdered, both shot in the neck. And for him, that’s where the similarities end.
Why he says the compare-and-contrast falls apart
Chappelle’s bigger point is structural: Kirk’s claim to fame is as an internet personality, and the modern internet pretty much rewards outrage above all else. In his view, you can’t operate like Dr. King when your incentives are built around provoking engagement. He even riffs on how absurd it is to imagine MLK doing the whole influencer routine just to goose numbers.
- The setup: people calling Kirk this generation’s MLK.
- The punchline: Chappelle says the only real overlap is how they died, and that’s it.
- The reasoning: the internet’s engagement economy pushes negativity, which he argues runs counter to how King led.
- The takeaway: he rejects the comparison outright.
The 'Charlie Kirk Day' bit, and the MLK Day comparison
Chappelle also wades into the politics of remembrance. He talks about Congress designating October 14 as a National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk and says the Trump administration marked it. He speculates many lawmakers probably voted for it to keep potential unrest to a minimum.
He’s clear that he doesn’t begrudge anyone choosing to remember Kirk. What sticks with him is the contrast: Martin Luther King Jr. Day took a long, public push to happen, with the King family and Stevie Wonder lobbying hard to get that federal holiday over the finish line.
And just to be clear: that Charlie Kirk Day Chappelle references is not a federal holiday.
The Unstoppable is streaming now on Netflix in the U.S.