Dave Chappelle Got Attacked On Stage & Now He’s Shading Chris Rock
It was The Slap heard ’round the world. A few months after the incident involving Chris Rock and Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars, Dave Chappelle got attacked on stage as well. It was infinitely more serious, but the controversial stand-up threw some shade at Rock in his comedy special, The Dreamer.
The incident occurred live at the 94th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony on March 27, 2022, when the Saturday Night Live alum made a distasteful joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. “Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see ya,” Rock said in part, making a comparison between Jada’s shaved head and actress Demi Moore’s buzz cut in the 1997 movie, G.I. Jane. Jada, for her part, has gone public with her years-long struggle with alopecia. She was visibly upset at Chris’s comment, rolling her eyes from her seat as he defended the joke. Will then stepped on stage to slap the comedian.
Although the live broadcast quickly began to censor the exchange between Will and Chris, uncensored footage that aired internationally revealed what was really said between the actors. “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me,” Chris said in disbelief. From afar, Will could be heard yelling at the comedian to not speak about Jada. “Keep my wife’s name out of your f—king mouth,” he screamed twice. After experiencing something similar—Dave Chappelle got attacked on stage by a gun-wielding assailant (the firearm was later shown to be fake but it had a blade within it)—he shaded, rather than stood in solidarity with, Chris Rock.
Dave Chappelle attacked on stage
Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage in May 2022 while performing at the Hollywood Bowl for the Netflix Is A Joke festival. You can watch the video here thanks to TMZ. Chappelle later joked that his attacker “was a trans man”, a joke that was captured by social media users. It got a laugh from the audience but a mixed response online.
“All these people leave out the fact Dave Chappelle joked that it was a ‘trans man’ that ran on stage to beat him when we don’t know who it was,” fumed one commenter on Twitter. “All we know is that things are about to get worse in this country and have been getting worse for trans people and Dave encourages it.” Another wrote, “Dave Chappelle gets attacked on stage and the first thing he do is mention trans people. That man is obsessed.”
Chappelle’s representative praised him for not letting what happened “overshadow the magic” of his four Hollywood Bowl performances. “As unfortunate and unsettling as the incident was, Chappelle went on with the show,” she said in a statement.
The attacker was later identified as Isaiah Lee, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, with bail set at $30,000, the Los Angeles Police Department said at the time. He pleaded no contest to the crime Wednesday and was sentenced to 270 days in prison on December 12, 2022.
Lee later told The Post that he was “triggered” by the comedian’s jokes about the LGBTQ community and homelessness. “I identify as bisexual … and I wanted him to know what he said was triggering,” he said. “I wanted him to know that next time, he should consider first running his material by people it could affect. I’m also a single dad and my son is 5,” he continued. “It’s a struggle and I wanted Dave Chappelle to know it’s not a joke.”
In his Netflix special The Dreamer, which premiered on December 31, 2023, Chappelle addressed the incident. “Man, when that guy tackled me, it was like a movie or something. You gotta picture this. Picture a famous person you like. Every famous person you could imagine was at that show. It was like the biggest night that Hollywood had ever seen, and when that guy tackled me, he cleared the bleachers,” he began.
“I had to watch the tape afterwards to know this happened, but as soon as he tackled me, Jamie Foxx was the first mother—ker that jumped out of the crowd. He was wearing a white cowboy hat like he knew this s—t was going to happen to me,” said Chappelle.
“Every celebrity just ran out because every celebrity saw themselves in me, and they just started beating the f—k out of that kid. And I know Chris was backstage looking like, ‘Nobody helped me,’” said the comedian. He then sang the jingle to Everybody Hates Chris, Rock’s sitcom which is based on his teenage years. “I do now know what Will Smith would not have done, and that is enjoy the rest of his evening,” he finished.
The Emmy-winning comedian is no stranger to receiving backlash for his often-controversial hot takes; Chappelle’s 2021 Netflix special The Closer was met with company walkouts and protests due to the recorded performance’s rather insensitive and offensive tone.
While some protestors called for the special to be removed, others believe pulling it would cause more harm than good. Some activists is instead pushing for a new content warning to be displayed on content that could be considered transphobic. “At this point, the special has likely been watched by the majority of people who will ever watch it,” said Terra Field, a Netflix software engineer and vice president of Team Trans.
“If you take a piece of media down when it has already been available for a while, that tends to just drive more interest in it as it becomes taboo,” per CBS news. “We feel our time and energy is better spent pushing for a content warning for all transphobic content, and focusing on creating new opportunities for queer and trans creators.”
Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission from the sale.
