On Thursday night, Chapelle kicked off a sold-out, in-person screening of his Untitled documentary at the Chase Center in San Francisco. "It's been a hell of a few weeks," Chappelle said on stage following the screening to 18,000 fans who filled the arena.
In recent weeks, the comedian has faced demands for him to be canceled following jokes made in a stand-up special separate from the screening.
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But Chappelle seemed to dismiss the scale of the controversy by saying that it was only happening "in a corner of the world that just happens to control the media," "Man, I love being canceled. It's a huge relief!" he joked.
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He said that he could overlook the controversy in part because "I'm rich and famous."
He added: "When you're in the eye of the storm, it all just swirls around you."
Chappelle brought questions with his jokes in which he asserts "gender is a fact" and slams what he thinks is the fragile skin of the trans community.
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The jokes were based upon earlier observations made by Harry Potter author J K Rowling's who in 2019 stated that transgender women were not actually women and were a menace to her identity.
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According to his website, the documentary is "Fueled by the murder of George Floyd, shut-in by the closures of business due to the pandemic and provides economic and comic relief."
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Last week, Chappelle discussed the criticism for the first time, staying unapologetic in a five-minute video he posted on his Instagram account.
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In a video posted to social media, Chappelle told how film festivals had not invited him while distributors have also gone back on picking up his documentary.
It is part of the reason why he has decided to head out on the road to screen the film to the audience himself.
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Chappelle said that the Untitled documentary, about the comedian's attempts to hold stand-up shows in a neighbor's cornfield in Ohio during the pandemic, had been invited to "every film festival in the United States."
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In the wake of The Closer dispute, however, "they began disinviting me from these film festivals and now, today, not a film company, not a movie studio, not a film festival, not nobody will touch this film."
He added, "Thank god for Ted Sarandos at Netflix, he's the only one who didn't cancel me yet."
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