The creator of ‘Chappelle’s Show,’ celebrity comedian Dave Chappelle, was performing at the ‘Netflix Is a Joke’ festival in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl when an unidentified spectator stormed the stage and tackled him to the ground, as shown in frightening footage.
Security took the offender, 23-year-old Isaiah Lee of Los Angeles, from the venue, where he was detained by the LAPD and sent to a local hospital for minor injuries. Lee was charged with felony assault with a lethal weapon, it was later revealed. The suspect was carrying an imitation handgun with a knife blade, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department said.
The Hollywood Bowl has initiated an inquiry, according to a spokesman.
After the on-stage attack, the 48-year-old jokingly told the audience that the attacker “was a trans man”. This comment has once again led him in hot water with LGBTQ+ detractors.
While the phrase was received with laughter by the audience, some internet reviewers accused the comedian of taking a cheap shot.
According to reports, Chappelle was joined on stage by fellow comedian Chris Rock, who was slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars. Actor and musician Jamie Foxx was also in attendance, according to Sharon Carpenter, a British journalist working in the United States.
Dave Chappelle just got attacked on stage
– Hoodville (@Hoodville_) May 4, 2022
This is not the first time Chappelle has had a run-in with the trans community in recent months. LGBTQ activists petitioned Netflix in October to remove the “Half Baked” star’s current special, “The Closer,” from their library because it contained explosive jokes about transgender women.
Chappelle was accused of defending rapper DaBaby and “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s controversial comments, as well as deflecting criticism he received for cracking wise about the trans community in prior specials “Equanimity” and “Sticks & Stones.”
In “The Closer,” Chappelle declares that he’s joining Rowling’s “Team TERF!” (acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist) and conflates rapper DaBaby’s homophobic remarks at a gig earlier this summer with systematic racism.
About a hundred individuals protested outside Netflix’s offices in October when a comedy special by Dave Chappelle was aired, which they claimed was transphobic. They were upset because he declared “gender is a fact” and that LGBT people were “too sensitive” in The Closer.
This incident reminds the world of how Smith notoriously smacked Rock on stage at the Academy Awards after Rock made a joke about the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, five weeks prior.
Image David Bauld Flickr
Man That Attacked Dave Chappelle At His Show At Hollywood Bowl Has Hands Broken and Dislocated pic.twitter.com/ZvPgjdV5gz
– raphousetv (@raphousetv2) May 4, 2022
