Comedian Dave Chappelle was in New York Sunday evening to accept the Mark Twain Prize for American humor and had this to say . . .

“I want everyone in America right now to look at me. Look at me smoking indoors,” the guest of honor bragged. “I didn’t ask anybody… What are they gonna do? Kick me out before I get the prize?”

He added: “It’s called leverage.”

He would later thank the Fire Marshal “for having the courage to let me be myself.”

Chappelle informed the audience “I did not write a speech.” During his impromptu remarks, he defended freedom of speech when talking about comedians he knows who are “very racist.”

“(I) don’t get mad at ’em, don’t hate on ’em,” he said. “Man, it’s not that serious. The First Amendment is first for a reason. Second Amendment is just in case the First one doesn’t work out.”