Chappelle: I Don't Believe Michael Jackson's Accusers

In new special, comic says he doesn't think the pop star molested anyone
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 27, 2019 6:31 AM CDT
Chappelle on Michael Jackson: 'I Don't Think He Did It'
Dave Chappelle speaks at the press conference for "A Star Is Born" on day 4 of the Toronto International Film Festival, Sept. 9, 2018.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

The Michael Jackson documentary Neverland has prompted even some of his staunchest defenders to doubt Jackson's innocence in molestation claims. But one fellow celeb appears to be holding the line. "I’m going to say something I’m not allowed to say, but I gotta be real: I don’t believe these [accusers]," says Dave Chappelle said in his new Netflix special, Sticks & Stones. "I do not believe it." As the Washington Post notes, Chappelle has long declined to join the pop star's accusers. In 2004, for example, he said he was "reserving judgment until all the facts come out," and the recent documentary apparently didn't sway him. "I don't think he did it," he says in the new special.

Not that Chappelle didn't joke about the possibility, suggesting it wouldn't have been so bad. "I mean, it’s Michael Jackson," he said, per Yahoo. "I know more than half the people in this room have been molested in their lives. But it wasn’t no (expletive) Michael Jackson, was it?" He wasn't as forgiving toward R. Kelly, also accused of sexual abuse. "If I’m a betting man, I’m putting my money on he probably did that," he said. All in all, Chappelle says this is the worst time ever to be a celebrity, lamenting the "cancel culture" that has hurt fellow celebs such as Louis CK and Kevin Hart. "I don’t know what you know about Kevin, but I know that Kevin Hart is damn near perfect," Chappelle said. "As close to perfect as anybody I’ve ever seen. In fact, Kevin is precisely four tweets shy of being perfect." (More Dave Chappelle stories.)

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