Dave Chappelle’s Ja Rule Joke is Having a Very Meta Twitter Moment

The joke was originally performed during Chappelle’s 2004 stand-up special, For What It’s Worth.

Twitter trends, as a (very) general rule, are fairly straight-forward. A thing happens, words are said, and a hashtag is quickly generated. However, there is an occasional sub-division of internet fodder that goes viral solely because of how often it goes viral.

Take today, for instance. At some point this morning, Dave Chappelle‘s “Where’s Ja?” routine began circulating (again,) because someone simply pointed out that the clip from his 2004 special For What It’s Worth tends to make the rounds anytime Ja Rule reacts to something (see below.) Naturally, the clip resurfaced and it was off to the races. Some defended the media’s decision to get the Queens’ rapper’s account of 9/11 (which is both the original premise of the joke and an actual thing that happened,) others noted how the comedian accomplished what arch-nemesis 50 Cent has been attempting to do for decades, and still others tried to rationalize the absurd reality of the media, to this day, asking Ja Rule for takes. And, of course, all of this only feeds the algorithm, regardless of what the rapper actually did to spark his latest run on the “trending” tab. But I guess that’s just a standard Sunday on Twitter at this point?

Last year, Ja actually responded to Chappelle’s joke (without going viral) and didn’t seem to hold any grudges against the comedian. “Honored to be a part of that,” the rapper told HipHopDX. So there doesn’t appear to be any bad blood there, but I can’t imagine the feeling of seeing yourself trending only to find out it’s because a very funny and very targeted joke about you is having a very meta 350th viral Twitter moment.

Catch the whole thread below.