Dave Chappelle ‘made shameless trans guy joke’ after being attacked on stage
Comedian Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage during a live show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on 3 May 2022. (Phillip Faraone/Getty for Netflix)
Comedian Dave Chappelle reportedly made a joke about trans people after he was attacked while performing on stage in Los Angeles.
Chappelle was performing at the Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival on Tuesday (3 May) night when a member of the audience charged at him and tackled him to the floor.
A reporter at the show, Brianna Sacks, posted a lengthy thread about the incident on Twitter and said a man “charged and tackled” Chapelle on stage.
Sacks said the attacker “got his a** kicked by at least 10 people” and shared footage of emergency services loading the man into an ambulance.
After the attack, Dave Chappelle returned to the stage and suggested to the audience that the attacker “was a trans man”, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The attacker was detained by security, NBC Los Angeles reported, and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said they were carrying a weapon that could eject a knife blade “when you discharge it correctly”. It wasn’t clear if they tried to use the weapon.
The LAPD said the man was taken to the hospital with “superficial injuries”, and police said Chappelle wasn’t injured.
Dave Chappelle has been widely criticised for his recent Netflix special, The Closer, in which he made cruel jabs against the trans community and declared himself part of “team TERF”.
Instead of apologising, Dave Chappelle decried so-called “cancel culture” for the controversy around his show.
He also said that he was “more than willing to give you [the trans community] an audience, but you will not summon me”.
“I am not bending to anybody’s demands,” he said.
Chappelle’s comments sparked a mass walk out of Black and trans Netflix staff, backed by the support of several high-profile LGBT+ celebrities.
Despite the profound outrage, Chappelle was handed a new Netflix show and a theatre at his old high school in Washington DC will be named in his honour.
When he returned to Duke Ellington School of the Arts for a fundraiser, Chappelle was called a “bigot” by students for his anti-LGBT+ remarks.
One teen reportedly described the comedian as “childish”, and Chappelle said he didn’t believe the teen “could make one of the decisions I have to make on a given day”.
