During his live performance at the Hollywood Bowl Tuesday night, comedian Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage by a man who hurled himself at Chappelle, knocking him to the ground.
Chappelle’s security team rushed onstage chasing the assailant as he fled offstage, where they detained him with the help of Jamie Foxx, who was in the wings wearing a sheriff’s hat, according to The Daily Mail.
#davechappelle attacked at #hollywoodbowl #netflixisajoke pic.twitter.com/oP04S0de90
— abazar 🦇🔊 (@abazar) May 4, 2022
Some reports stated that Chapelle’s security team punched and attacked the assailant when they caught him off-stage.
Security et al rushed and started punching and kicking the shit out of Chapelle’s attacker. He was just about to bring on Talib Kweli and Mos Def for the encode and we in the crowd were like what the fuck is going on. Chapelle kept on while the guy was getting beat in the back
— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) May 4, 2022
Chappelle, who has been harshly criticized by the trans community for his jokes about transgenders, continued the show undaunted, reportedly quipping, “It was a trans man. … I am going to kill that n*****.”
“Shout out to Jamie Foxx by the way,” he added to Foxx on stage after the curtain call, The Daily Mail reported. “Whenever you’re in trouble, Jamie Foxx will show up in a sheriff’s hat.”
“I thought that was part of the show, I didn’t know what the f***,” Foxx replied.
“I grabbed the back of that n**** head. His hair was spongy. Absorbent,” Chappelle joked.
Foxx then saluted Chappelle: “Listen, I just want to say, this man is an absolute genius. We’ve got to make sure we protect him at all times. … For every comedian who comes out here, this means everything. You’re a genius. You’re a legend, I enjoyed myself thoroughly, and we’re not going to let nothing happen to you.”
“I’ve been doing this for 35 years,” Chappelle noted, then joked, “I just stomped a n**** backstage. I’ve always wanted to do that.”
Comedian Chris Rock, who was infamously attacked by actor Will Smith at the Academy Awards and was scheduled to perform after Chapelle, joined Chappelle on stage after the assault and joked, “Was that Will Smith?”
Chappelle quickly replied: “I thought it was you for a second!”
An ABC News producer reported that Los Angeles Police said a man who was reportedly armed with a gun and a knife at the Bowl was taken into custody.
LAPD confirm to KABC they responded to an incident at the Hollywood Bowl around 10:45 p.m., and a man who was reportedly armed with a gun and a knife was taken into custody. #netflixisajokefest #DaveChappelle
— Stephanie Maurice (@WashNews) May 4, 2022
In his Netflix comedy show “The Closer” last year Chapelle defended author J.K. Rowling, whom the transgender community has vilified, and joked that women had a right to feel angry at men claiming to be women after Caitlyn Jenner won Glamour magazine’s 2015 Woman of the Year award, saying, “I’d be mad as s*** if I was a woman.”