Jerrod Carmichael Says His ‘Slave Play’ Joke Was Taken Out Of Context, Regrets Criticizing Dave Chappelle Publicly

Jerrod Carmichael addresses recent criticism from a controversial joke featured in his new HBO series.

On Tuesday, he appeared on The Breakfast Club with DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious and Charlamagne Tha God, who last week named the comedian the “donkey of the day” after playing a now-viral clip of him during the Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, which many thought he liked engaging in race-based sexual slave play with his boyfriend, Entertainment Weekly reported.

However, the 37-year-old called out Charlamage for using a clip that only showed the punchline and did not include the setup.

“You played a clip of my stand up, but it started at the punchline, and it like completely erased the setup of it,” Carmichael told Charlamagne, who also shared he was a fan of the show and a friend of his. “I really don’t like that. It made it seem like I was talking like I’m into some type of race sexual slavery role play with my boyfriend, which is untrue.”

The contentious remarks made by Carmichael that went viral on social media were part of a live standup show. He talked about his boyfriend, who is white, and how he pushes him to be “smarter.”

“My boyfriend, he makes me smarter, he makes me read. I have so many books. Realistically I’m not gonna read all those books. He knows that. But the fact that I bought them says I love you. They’re little monuments around my apartment just like ‘look at this book from Amazon that I’m never gonna read,” he told the crowd during his set, per EW.

He continued, “I sometimes joke to him that our relationship is like that of a slave and a master’s son — who, like, teaches me how to read by candlelight.”

The joke sparked mixed reactions from the audience, with some attendees failing to find it humorous.

“Yeah, he groans too ’cause he’s a good person,” he said of his boyfriend. “He doesn’t like that f**king joke. I like that joke. That’s my burden, I think that s**t’s hilarious!”

Carmichael also told the radio co-hosts that the joke was taken out of context and it had “nothing” to do with sexual kinks.

“It’s so false, it’s so untrue, and I don’t like that because it’s like… it has nothing to do with my boyfriend. It has nothing [to do with] the sex that we have. It has nothing to do with sex. It’s something that people have been reporting on, and I really really don’t like it,” he told Charlamagne, who revealed that he had only seen the viral clip and not the whole show.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Carmichael also apologized to fellow comedian Dave Chappelle over comments he made about him in early April. As Blavity reported, he opened up to Esquire magazine about his relationship with Chappelle, calling him an “egomaniac” based on a 2022 incident where the comedian made anti-trans jokes during his comedy special The Closer.

“I want to say that I’m sorry for that because, one, I’m a huge Dave Chappelle fan,” he said on The Breakfast Club. “I think he’s brilliant. I think he’s a bright light in a dying industry. I think he’s more important now than ever before because comedians are now just posting clips of them doing crowd work online and calling it art, and it’s not art. Dave Chappelle is an artist. He’s one of the few artists that we have. And I care deeply about the work that he makes.”

Carmichael further stated that he would confine his comments or feedback for Chappelle to in-person discussions or phone conversations rather than sharing them publicly or with media outlets.

“I’ll never do it again. I do apologize for that. I’m man enough to say that is wrong. I don’t need it. I don’t want the attention. It has gone on way too long,” he concluded. “There are so few artists, people actually doing art — not doing podcasts, not doing like crowd work videos online — actually doing the art. He’s one of the few. I have a deep respect for him. And that’s all I’ll say.”