Dave Chappelle and Netflix issue statements about Hollywood Bowl attack
"[Chappelle] refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of this historic moment."
Aux News Dave Chappelle
Netflix and Dave Chappelle have now both issued public statements about the incident that took place at the Hollywood Bowl last night, in which Chappelle’s performance was interrupted by a man—later arrested and identified as 23-year-old Isaiah Lee—who got onto the stage and tackled the comedian during the streaming service’s “Netflix Is A Joke”-branded event.
The Netflix statement is fairly short, and to the point: “We care deeply about the safety of creators and we strongly defend the right of stand-up comedians to perform on stage without fear of violence.”
The statement from the Chappelle camp, meanwhile, puts an emphasis on attempting (probably quixotically, if we’re being honest) to not let this one element of the evening overshadow everything else about it. Here’s the full statement which is, by volume, about 20 percent “yes that happened,” and 80 percent “But hey, our show!”
Dave Chappelle celebrated four nights of comedy and music, setting record-breaking sales for a comedian at the Hollywood Bowl. This run ties Chappelle with Monty Python for the most headlined shows by any comedian at the Hollywood Bowl, reaching 70k fans of diverse backgrounds during the first Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival, and he refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of this historic moment.
As unfortunate and unsettling as the incident was, Chappelle went on with the show. Jamie Foxx and Chris Rock helped calm the crowd with humor before Chappelle introduced the last and featured musical guests for the evening, hip-hop artists yasiin bey and Talib Kweli, a.k.a. Black Star, who performed music from their new album – the first in nearly 24 years – which was released on Luminary. Other special comedic guests last night included Earthquake, Leslie Jones, Jeff Ross, Sebastian, Jon Stewart and Michelle Wolf.
Reports from Los Angeles police have stated that Lee was carrying a weapon, described as a replica gun that actually functioned as a knife. Chappelle is reportedly unharmed after the incident.
Neither Netflix, nor the comedian’s team, addressed in their statements online criticism of the joke Chappelle made in the immediate aftermath of the attack about the attacker being “a trans man,” a reference to the anger produced in LGBTQA+ communities by transphobic material in the comedian’s recent specials.
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Neither Netflix, nor the comedian’s team, addressed in their statements online criticism of the joke Chappelle made in the immediate aftermath of the attack about the attacker being “a trans man,” a reference to the anger produced in LGBTQA+ communities by transphobic material in the comedian’s recent specials.Well yeah, because what is there to say about an indefensible joke made in response to an indefensible attack?Great googly moogly, I’m so tired of this toxic atmosphere of aggression and hatred and violence and fear that society is marinating in nowadays.
Upvoted for “great googly moogly”
Doubling-down on the stochastic terrorism that (likely) led to this attack, in its immediate aftermath, is worth mentioning.
I guess he just had it coming? He’s a comedian who was nearly murdered on stage by someone. If you made a list of people who hate his guts, trans people might be near the top of that list. The joke wrote itself. Do you have a more effective punchline that he should have gone with?
i agree with your conclusion but really what about simply saying ‘trans man?’ in a joke is ‘indefensible’? if trans people are going to fit in in this world that means accepting that sooner or later someone might make a joke about you, as we do with every group. its not the end of the world and its not indefensible. this ‘any joke that mentions trans people is automatically cancelled’ is baby shit
Calling the attacker a trans man, who was not, of course, a trans man at all for no reason other than it’s a cheap joke that was obviously meant to be an insult as well. I mean, c’mon.
god forbid a comedian make a cheap insult joke about a guy who just ran onstage with a knife at him. god forbid chapelle didn’t ask the attacker for his preferred gender identity before he made the joke. you people are so lost in this stuff
“god forbid a comedian make a cheap insult joke about a guy who just ran onstage with a knife at him. god forbid chapelle didn’t ask the attacker for his preferred gender identity before he made the joke. you people are so lost in this stuff”No, you’re being deliberately obtuse here. Nobody is saying he shouldn’t have made a crack about the guy who attacked him. His choice to use the situation as yet another way to denigrate trans people is what everyone is calling out. He has chosen to make the trans community his personal and very public target for whatever reason, and even in this bizarre situation, his go-to response was to drag them into it, making them the butt of the joke. NOT the guy who actually attacked him, and that is what most people will remember him saying in the aftermath. He’s becoming like JK Rowling – completely focused on vilifying an already marginalized group he doesn’t belong to and has nothing to do with him.
Lots of words for a whole lot of nothing.Get a hobby.
Punch the joke up: What should he have said?
god forbid a comedian make a cheap insult joke about a guy who just ran onstage with a knife at him.
That’s not what happened. Chappelle made an unfounded accusation.
A cheap joke you can tell in the delivery
You are an crazy person.“unfounded accusation”.Jesus Christ.
wtf are u talking about. he didn’t ‘accuse’ anything. he made a joke. it was funny
If you have to sit here explaining how a joke was actually funny, chances are it was not actually funny.
people in the audience laughed. normal people who see it on twitter laugh. nutcases in the avc comment section gasp and pearl clutch about it. hope this helps
Notorious arbiter of good taste and humor: Twitter.
Notorious arbiter of good taste and humor: The Av Club comment section
he made a joke. it was funny No.
Yup
You’re telling on yourself when you equate calling someone a trans man with an insult.
Its called insult comedy, ita a thing. See don rickles, Joan rivers, Chris rock
you’re telling on Yourself when u try to PC police language like that when if u just looked a BIT closer and with ANY good faith at all, that i was quoting the person above me who said “a cheap joke that was obviously meant to be an insult”. shame on you
Holy fuck, did you just say calling someone trans is an insult?You understand that you’re transphobic, right? I’m sure you will not, and act as if me calling you transphobic for saying something transphobic is more insulting than calling trans an insult.If you call someone gay as an insult, that’s homophobic. If you call someone Chinese as an insult it’s xenophobic. You’re awful
You’re not remembering the hate and threats Chapelle got from the Trans community. It’s not a stretch that someone could be attacking him because they are angry.
you people are pathetic to jump on that. i was QUOTING the person above me who said “a cheap joke that was obviously meant to be an insult” – i shortened it to be “a cheap insult joke” and for that i’m transphobic? get a grip truly
Listen, anyone using trans as an insult is transphobic. Period. Don’t quote the guy in front of you. Don’t spread transphobia
Listen, you’re a walking parody. ill spread whatever i want, nutto
And 100% agree, again.
god forbid a comedian not transparently use any opportunity he can to denigrate and insult the already wildly marginalized and abused community he has a creepy hate-obsession with shitting on
I’m not going to make a judgement on whether anyone should like Chappelle or not but this it was definitely not “obviously meant to be an insult as well”.
Chappelle has been in the news for “hating trans people” or whatever for several years at this point. Him joking that the attacker must have been trans was a reference to the several years of hate he’s received specifically from the trans community. It’s a pretty classic callback joke. Because he’s a comedian. He writes and tells jokes for a living. Whether anyone thinks they’re funny is besides the point. Everyone knows the trans community has been angry at him. Someone attacked him on stage. It’s not really transphobic to make that connection. Insensitive and a cheap joke? Yes. Funny? Debatable. Hateful toward trans folks? Not any more hateful than his jokes made with respect to Asian people. That said, has Dave Chappelle ever incited violence in any way shape or form against the trans community, other than laughs at their expense? Has he called for the removal of trans rights? Are people committing hate crimes and mass shootings against trans people in the name of Dave Chappelle, King TERF? Not that I’m aware of. Pretty sure he just tells jokes and people get mad at him enough to want to assault him.
Meanwhile, more people have spent more time online writing and complaining about comedians ruining society, 2018 saw the largest participation number increase in the number of young eligible voting adults in history. Of all the 18-29 year olds eligible to vote in this country, a whopping 36% of that demographic voted in the midterms. And that’s the HIGHEST level of voter participation we’ve ever had in that age group.So obviously Chappelle just hates trans people and deserves to be assaulted while working and his jokes about the community are the problem. Not the entire right wing of the government who continues to systematically erode civil rights for minorities.
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/04/behind-2018-united-states-midterm-election-turnout.html
Next thing you’re going to tell me is that this wasn’t actually Will Smith….
GASP! HOW DARE YOU!
“i agree with your conclusion but really what about simply saying ‘trans man?’ in a joke is ‘indefensible’?”So do you NOT think this mangling of the concept of observable reality was incredibly transparent or do you just not care?
truly not sure what you’re trying to say. him joking that the person who tackled him was a trans man is a ‘mangling of observable reality’? no, it’s what we call A Joke. its not even specifically a joke about trans people, its literally just [who notoriously has issue with me – trans people – ok so it was probably one of them]
100% agree.
Thank you for describing/”translating” Chappy’s statement and demonstrating the obvious truth that it was NOT a “joke” as it was neither funny nor intended to be funny (as every comedian knows a joke must have SOME element of surprise).
Where’ve you been? A joke is anything you say that you don’t want criticized, whether or not it contains elements of a joke that were known to the world before 2016.
Just don’t care, thanks.He made joke, some people laughed, some didn’t. Also, water is wet.Grow up.
Anybody want to answer this guy’s question?
Give me a break. He’s spent the last year spewing transphobic hate, and when he was assaulted, he falsely put the blame on trans people, as if they’d sunk to his level. Just more lies about trans people out of his bigoted mouth.Fuck him.
so this group that is targeted for violence and bigotry is further targeted by him and that’s bad.
When “jokes” are made at the expense of a group that has a higher rate of being murdered simply because of who they are, then jokes at their expense are pretty much indefensible.
Can you tell me where is the joke in calling someone a trans man? Is it supposed to be funny because the existence of trans men are funny? Is it supposed to be funny because only a trans man would take offense to the jokes he’s made at the expense of trans people? I’m just having a hard time understanding why calling someone trans is supposed to be funny
god you people are dense. i’ve already described the point of the joke above. it’s ‘i just got attacked. who is likely to have done that/who is angry with me’ if he had recently pissed off the jews I’m sure he would’ve said “it was a jew!”. everything else is your insecurity and projection
Maybe I am dense but I still do not get the joke. What is funny about the person who attacked me must be part of a marginalized group I have been antagonizing for years? Using your logic, saying “It must be a jew!” is antisemetic. So I guess the joke is funny because it is transphobic?
jesus christ can u people write 1 comment without using the word ‘marginalized’. jewish people aren’t even marginalized like that so wtf are u getting at? the joke is funny because it’s comically saying the elephant in the room in a tension breaking way
What does the tension in the room of him being attacked on stage have to do with trans people? Was he making jokes about trans people that night before he got attacked? We’ve subsequently discovered that his attacker seems to be a fan of his or at least released a song about him years ago. So, why did he call this person a trans man? See, I even managed to write a comment without mentioning marginalized, damnit I just did
right so now we’ve arrived at the joke -it was a non sequitur, referencing his well known controversy. ‘someone just hit me, who’s a funny example group to say it could be, oh yea trans people because they have a reason to be angry bc of the controversy’trans people thinking theyre above the law of ever being included comedy is only stoking the divide further and cementing opinions that they don’t have a sense of humor about shit. it might blow your mind but in a utopian world, trans people are still made fun of just as much as anyone else
I watched the clip, and it didn’t come across to me as an insult joke, as much as an “addressing the elephant-in-the-room” joke. People expect that a Chappelle attacker in 2022 would be someone upset with his views, so he made the most obvious “This person doesn’t like me, and here is my best guess as to why” joke.That said, I’m not saying its a particularly good joke, more of a “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me” reactionary thing that most trained comedians flex with after being thrown off their game.
It’s amazing how he immediately pissed away a golden chance to put himself on the moral high ground.
“Man Saves Child from Burning Building: Blames ‘the Jews’”
A Jewish Space Laser caused the fire
Moral high ground for who? People like you?
He’s a comedian.Having a moral high ground is disadvantageous to the job.
Actually, it’s not particularly amazing at this point.
Great googly moogly, I’m so tired of this toxic atmosphere of aggression and hatred and violence and fear that society is marinating in nowadays.I blame social media part and parcel. Never before in the history of the world has humanity been allowed to be so fucking terrible to one another with virtually no consequences whatsoever, and that mentality has bled into the real world. If the weather doesn’t kill us all, our own words will.
…it was just a joke. Relax.
The frightening thing is that I really don’t see how this atmosphere of tension and hatred gets any better. Ask yourself: what would it take for us to have a period of national optimism again? What would that even look like?
It could start with one of the most famous comedians deciding to finally stop attacking a group of people that are already in the highest risk category of violence and hatred. It wasn’t funny 10 years ago, yet he continuously attacks the trans community in every single one of his stand up specials. He hasn’t been funny in years, and those attacks, no matter how much he wants to hide behind the I’m a comedian crap are disgusting and are absolutely doing real world harm to the trans community. And of course his immediate reaction was to blame a trans person
“Independence Day” scenario?Please un-gray me!!
I dunno, but I’m looking forward to it. Maybe bring back ‘Love American Style’?
“Ask yourself: what would it take for us to have a period of national optimism again? What would that even look like?”Unfortunately, it would probably take another domestic attack from a foreign entity like 9/11 for that to happen.And I’m not even sure in today’s world we would get the same national unity as we did then.
We’re currently living through a global pandemic, something that affects every living person on the planet, and we couldn’t even come together on that. Hell, it made things even worse. Another 9/11 wouldn’t even make a dent in this impenetrable fucking hate cloak we’ve wrapped ourselves up in.
Giant alien squid attack?
Was that ever really a thing? Look back at any era of history and everyone’s pretty much always complaining about everything. Even the people who had it pretty good are complaining. And most people didn’t have it pretty good.
Well all the people who really know what they’re talking about say the last time tensions were this high and the country was this divided, we had a civil war.
Depends on what side you’re on. I know one side wants a theocracy with an authoritarian leader and a subjugated working class, and I know there’s no way I could ever be optimistic about that.
Moon base. Definitely a moon base.
this toxic atmosphere of aggression and hatred and violence and fear that society is marinating in nowadays.
Sounds like humanity since the dawn of time to me.
Only difference is now we can read about it in the palm of our hand.
I love the left going ape shit over everything. There is no such thing as “trans”. You are a man or a woman. The rest is mental illness.
Chappelle is a piece of transphobic shit. He doesn’t deserve to get physically assaulted, but at the same time, fuck him, and fuck all the normal people who turn into slobbering proto-MAGA types when they rush defend his bigotry.Crazy to think I ever thought he was intelligent.
Well, I for one consider this to be world’s most unsuspicious attack that definitely didn’t immediately benefit the victim in every conceivable way while feeding directly into his narrative seamlessly.
And you’re certainly not any kind of moron, that’s for sure.
1. How many times are you going to post on this?2. Can you show us on the doll where Chappelle hurt you?
lol, you really are a special creature
The attacker was a rapper with songs defending Trump. I’ve not heard them so unsure if they were ironic or sincere
He really has the face he deserves these days. What a creep.
There’s a painting of him getting younger somewhere.
Hatred seems to manifest itself physically. Look at any right wing politician.
Hatred seems to manifest itself physicallyWell, that and 30 years of chain smoking.
a replica gun that actually functioned as a knife.Isn’t that just like a Chappelle hater, bringing a gun-knife to a knife-gun fight.
I see you’ve played knifey-gunny before.
Take your damn star, you spoony bastard XD
This is one of the most ridiculous details to a story I’ve ever heard. A knife disguised as a gun is the worst of both of those things. At least a gun disguised as a knife would give you the element of surprise.
I saw a picture of a gun knife (knife gun?) and it was RIDICULOUS looking. Clearly 100% novelty.
I mean its no GunBlade though.
If you go that way, go big I say!
…so, no way it could have hurt anyone, right?
Of course it could. Badly. They released pics of the actual item dude had and it was a pretty stout blade. I wasn’t in any way dismissing the dangerousness.Anyway…OF COURSE dude is free to go with only minor charges. Lefties continue to skate. Guess he told prosecutors ‘but but but Chappelle hurt my feelings!’ and they said ‘oh, pardon us!’
This IS funny.
I’m glad the petty shithead fucker Chappelle didn’t get killed, so I can continue to call him petty shithead fucker.
There’s no law against calling dead people that. Mother Theresa can’t even do anything to me now!
True, but when he’s alive there’s always the almost impossibly remote chance that he’ll see my comment and that I may know that he did.🤣
there’s always the almost impossibly remote chance that he’ll see my comment and that I may know that he did.So what?
How’s the saying go, “Fuck around and find out?” He talked shit and refused to apologize. He’s pretty lucky that is all that happened.
Such a stupid take.
Um. That’s his JOB. Did you ever hear Bob Saget or Gilbert Gottfried the Aristocrats joke? Filth and disgusting crap, but people were telling jokes…
How the FUCK did this dude bring in a prop gun that just happened to be a knife!?Kinda like how that processor brought the divorce papers to Olivia Wilde at an event the other week: Security isn’t so hot in Hollywood right now.
The legal document is mightier than the bladegun.
I understand it was smuggled in as a water bottle that was actually a bag of popcorn.
It’s easy to smuggle stuff into the Hollywood Bowl, bc they let ppl bring in drink coolers and such with them. Security usually doesn’t inspect them much, if at all (at least until now). This allowed for a low key BYOB policy, and now this guy just ruined it for everyone.
Somehow everything in Dave’s World is trans people’s fault, MF probably blames them every time he stubs his toe.
Listen. This sucks and all or whatever shut up I just want to see this knife gun.
im assuming its just a switchblade but in the shape of a gun. ooo, here we go
This is like the “call an ambulance, but not for me” thing, with both characters being the same person.
I’m literally picturing the weapon as looking exactly like a gun but is used as a knife – no hidden sharp edges or anything like that. Like he could just use the ‘gun’ and slice bread with it.
Chapelle is really trying hard to be the token black comedian for the right isn’t he? I guess he realized that all those white gun’s unironically using the N-word because of the Chapelle show (over which he decided to end it) are really his core demographic.
mmmm, that’s some tasty racism, Tucker! Enjoying your stealth time on the Onion’s sister site?
He’s always leaned that way. The show had a staff of great writers who he took credit for when it suited him and shat on when it didn’t. He’s also full of shit why he quit the show. Just ask anybody that worked on it.
He’s also full of shit why he quit the show. Just ask anybody that worked on it. Could you give details please?
you’re an utter psycho if you actually believe this lol
My sister attends a prestigious law school and she tells me that many lawyers have decided to become conservatives because it is just MUCH easier to succeed as a conservative lawyer. Nearly all intelligent legal minds are left-leaning and so the competition is FAR greater to become a lefty lawyer/judge/politician than a righty lawyer/judge/politician. Comedians are similar. Conservative comedians break “taboos” (ie “say what everyone is thinking but cannot say out loud”) which is like shooting fish in a barrel in our free-speech-loving country. Lefty comedians make jokes revealing things the audience does not yet know (see Chris Rock on race) which is much harder! So it’s easy to see why a lefty comedian would move right when they ran out of good material (see Louis CK ).
When are the millennials finally going to declare standup comedy dead and begin filling the stages of former comedy clubs with sullen mopes, staring at their phones while they tell the gathered assemblage how awesome it is to be so woke all the time and morally superior to everyone else? Then, instead of laughing, they’ll all go, “GOOD for you! Good for YOU!!!” and then clap quietly before resuming the consumption of avocado toast.
I love that you actually think this is clever. Adorable.
Fuck this dude, y’all. Jesus, now I know how everyone else feels about JK Rowling.
Fuck her too, in case you were wondering where I stood.
Also, the fact that you can’t even get a phone into his shows without his permission, but you aren’t having security check people for *checks notes* gun shaped knives?
My biggest takeaway from this article is THAT BLACK STAR IS RELEASING A NEW ALBUM!!
ON A PODCAST APP!
If comedians have to be PC then what’s the point?
“…the magic of this historic moment.” (eye-roll)
Wow, a man tried to kill another man, and commenters are complaining about a bad joke. So this is where it’s headed – can’t take a Black man out with words, so do it with violence.