A leaked clip from a recent Madison Square Garden performance captured comedian Dave Chappelle making a brutal remark about Charlie Kirk. “Ever since that guy Charlie Kirk got murdered, and I shouldn’t say this publicly but … I feel better.”

The precise context remains unclear because the recording was smuggled out and posted online. What is unmistakable, however, is the outrage the joke unleashed among right wing activists who once celebrated Chappelle as a fearless enemy of political correctness.

The joke was abhorrent given Kirk’s public assassination. Yet Chappelle has built his brand around making abhorrent jokes about many groups, which makes MAGA’s sudden discovery of moral boundaries look remarkably selective.

For years, vicious jokes about the LGBTQ community, Black people, Jewish people, Asian Americans and people with disabilities have been defended by MAGA enthusiasts as provocative but constitutionally protected expression. A cruel reference to Kirk, apparently, belongs in an entirely different category.

Kirk’s widow, Erika, condemned leftist podcasters, comedians and commentators for treating political assassination as entertainment. She wrote that political violence must never become something the country tolerates, excuses or celebrates.

Elon Musk, ever ready to serve as the internet’s self appointed referee of decency, posted, “Dave Chappelle is cruel.” Far right commentator Matt Walsh called Chappelle a series of grotesque names and seemingly seriously suggested on his podcast that the comedian should be arrested and deported.

Comedian Rob Schneider also rebuked his friend, saying nobody deserves to die for engaging in conversation. Schneider argued that no one should feel better after the violent murder of a husband, father, son and friend.

The most generous interpretation would be that MAGA opposes jokes about people who were recently murdered. That defense collapses under the weight of the right’s silence when manosphere comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked during the Netflix Kevin Hart roast about George Floyd.

“Right now, George Floyd is looking up at us all, laughing so hard that he can’t breathe,” Hinchcliffe said. Internet observers quickly noticed that Chappelle’s Kirk joke at Madison Square Garden followed the same vicious structure.

“I’m sure he’s looking up at us right now, laughing so hard he can’t breathe,” Chappelle said of Kirk. The line was so pointed that it looked like an in house act of comedic retaliation against a right wing colleague.

Chappelle has also targeted Kirk in his special “The Unstoppable.” The larger episode shows how comedy has become a weapon in arguments over free speech, especially when partisan audiences decide that cruelty is courageous only when aimed at someone else.

The right previously lionized Chappelle for his long running, mean spirited attacks on the LGBTQ community, particularly trans people. When he mocked “The Alphabet people” in “The Closer” and “The Dreamer,” MAGA figures rushed to defend his contrarian artistry.

The National Review complained about progressive outrage over Chappelle’s comments on transgender people, while Musk argued that excessive sensitivity was killing comedy. Kirk himself praised Chappelle, writing, “Dave Chappelle exposes the truth about trans as only he can. This is brilliant. WATCH:”

Chappelle’s defenders often describe him as an equal opportunity offender who targets both the left leaning LGBTQ community and the right wing world where Kirk is revered. But as writer Jef Rouner observed, artists choose their subjects from a nearly infinite field of possibilities, and those choices reveal what matters to them.

Jacques Berlinerblau argues that Chappelle’s video about Floyd’s murder, “8:46,” demonstrates those choices. Chappelle described that work as “not funny at all,” and Berlinerblau writes that he is glad the comedian has not chosen to make similarly acerbic jokes about Floyd.

The issue is not simply whether offensive speech should be prohibited. MAGA’s fury over one Chappelle joke, paired with its defense of his many attacks on others, gives ample reason to doubt the movement’s supposed commitment to expressive liberty.

Artists such as Chappelle will continue crossing boundaries as they choose. They must also accept that public condemnation, censure and lost revenue are legitimate responses to tasteless jokes, even if those consequences are unlikely to deter a celebrity as successful and wealthy as Chappelle.