Comedian David Lucas found out the hard way that doing “crowd work” has a downside.
Lucas’ exchange with a heckler went viral after the comic evoked the late George Floyd. Suddenly, he felt social media’s wrath, and then some.
Lucas opened up about the experience on the “No Jumper” podcast hosted by Adam22, the former BMX blogger and talk show host.
Lucas dueled with a heckler in February at the Kansas City Funny Bone Comedy Club. The comedian’s response went viral in a hurry.
“And you want to show them the reason why George Floyd got his neck kneeled on” Lucas said to audible groans. “Don’t ‘Ooh’ at that joke. It’s just a joke, man. I would’ve never kneeled on George Floyd’s neck. I would’ve shot that [n-word].”
He shrugged off the ensuing outrage, including multiple patrons leaving the club following the exchange. He later said online that, “Being canceled ain’t that bad.” He eventually shared a quasi-apology to those offended by the routine on social media but stood by his humor.
“I’m an advocate for free speech, right. The great Patrice O’Neal said that a funny joke and a bad joke come from the same place, so that was my attempt at comedy,” said Lucas in the 18-minute chat. “It was to get shock value. I’m a troll. You heckle me, now I heckle you.”
“I don’t apologize for doing the joke… Who are we as the gatekeepers to say when a joke goes too far? I joke about beating on white women, I joke about killing white women, I joke about gay people, I joke about the transexual community. So, the moment I apologize for a George Floyd joke, now I gotta apologize for every other joke. So, who in this situation is the gatekeeper to tell me ‘You went too far’ or ‘You didn’t go far enough’? Is it because I’m not famous? If Dave Chappelle would have told that joke, what would have happened?”
Adam22 asked Lucas if he felt “distressed” after a large number of black people attacked him for the Floyd joke.
“Hell, no. It was stressing my Mama out because they found out her information,” he said, referencing how his critics doxed his mother as a way to attack him.
It worked, to a degree.
He says he found the person who leaked her personal information and threatened him if he contacted his mother one more time. Lucas didn’t appear to be joking. Later, he backtracked and said he’d call the police instead.
“I told my family it was coming before it was coming,” he said of the backlash. It mattered far less to him. “I don’t worry about people who are outraged online.”
Earlier in the conversation, Lucas shared some thoughts on Floyd, racism and other hot-button issues.
“He wasn’t a saint,” he said of Floyd, who had a string of arrests and violent incidents leading up to his fateful March 2020 encounter with Minneapolis police. “It’s an event I can talk about that everybody saw.”
Lucas also shared inconvenient thoughts on several issues tied to post-Floyd America. That included the Black Lives Matter organization.
“I didn’t like how BLM was bullying people into doing s***, and it’s a corrupt organization,” he said, alluding to several scandals tied to the activist group.
BLM founder Patrisse Cullors spends thousands renovating backyard of posh $1.4M LA home https://t.co/GB5WUnz2Lp pic.twitter.com/lPyB2eCGui
— New York Post (@nypost) October 9, 2022
He also shared his frustration over the media’s Kyle Rittenhouse narrative. The young man shot three people in 2020 during a race-related riot in Kenosha, Wis., killing two. The vast majority of liberals assumed he was a murderer, but a jury found he acted in self defense.
Some black activists wrongly assumed Rittenhouse targeted black protesters. Rittenhouse has publicly supported BLM.
“Why did black people hate Kyle Rittenhouse .. he killed two white people and injured one white dude,” Lucas said.
“Get him! Get him!”
In scenes reminiscent of Kenosha, BLM militants at @uofmemphis chase and pursue attendees of the Kyle Rittenhouse @ThisIsKyleR student event. Video by @Julio_Rosas11: pic.twitter.com/5bLjBPBizX
— Andy Ngô
(@MrAndyNgo) March 21, 2024
“That’s what happens when you follow blindly,” he said, adding that state of affairs is changing. Black Americans are more independent than the media suggests.
“A lot of black people are tired of being told how to think,” he said.
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