Dave Chappelle Reveals He Scolded Lauren Boebert for Posting Selfie With Anti Trans Caption: 'She Should Never Do That'

Dave Chappelle is speaking out about a moment that didn’t sit right with him.

During a Wednesday, April 15, appearance on NPR’s “Newsmakers” podcast, the comedian opened up about confronting Lauren Boebert after she posted a selfie with him back in 2023 — along with a caption he strongly disagreed with.

At the time, Chappelle had made a brief visit to Capitol Hill ahead of a performance in Washington, D.C., where he posed with lawmakers from both parties — including Boebert and Anna Paulina Luna.

The photo later went viral after Boebert shared it online with a controversial caption.

“Just three people who understand that there’s only two genders 😄,” she wrote in the post’s caption.

During the recent sit-down, Chappelle told host Michelle Martin, “I did resent that the Republican Party ran on transgender jokes. You know, I felt like they were doing a weaponized version of what I was doing. That’s not what I was doing.”

Chappelle said the timing made things even worse.

“She instantly, like, weaponized it or politicized it,” he said in the interview, noting that the post went live just before he took the stage that night.

“So I got to the arena, and I lit her a-- up for doing that. She should never do that to a person like me,” Chappelle said. “You do whatever it is you do, but don’t — get me out of the splash zone.”

Looking back, Chappelle said the photo happened during a busy moment when he was surrounded by people asking for shots.

“This is before I learned the phrase, ‘I respectfully decline,’” Chappelle said. “I was on Capitol Hill, and everybody ran up to take pictures with me from every congressional office, and I just take pictures with whoever asks. I didn’t ask how they vote or what their voting record is.”

He explained that the situation escalated quickly.

“At first it was like [Congressional Black Caucus] people, and then here comes Lauren Boebert,” he recalled. “And she said, ‘Can I get a picture?’ and I had already taken 40 pictures, I didn’t want to say no in front of everybody.”

The moment also ties back to the backlash surrounding his 2021 Netflix special, The Closer, which sparked debate over jokes about transgender people.

When asked whether he understood the criticism, Chappelle admitted it’s complicated.

“That’s a tough one for me, because so much of that was a media phenomenon — what was happening in actual life, versus how the media was reporting on my show,” he said. “And I feel like the way they were reporting on that show was rage baiting, to some degree.”

“They almost reported on it as if I was doing something other than a comedy show,” he added.

For Chappelle, context matters — especially when it comes to comedy.

“Reading a joke is a lot different than sitting in a room and hearing it,” he explained.

He added, “And part of the sitting in the room part — part of one of the reasons comedy works — is 'cause everyone that bought a ticket, clearly, they want it to work. They want to have a good time, they want to have fun. If you’re a person that is very angry or passionate about something, and you’re afraid that you're going to be misrepresented or misconstrued, and you feel like you have to police comedy to get your point across, you should assess your point.”