About

Dave Chappelle Attacked On Stage or Dave Chappelle Tackled refers to stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle being attacked on stage in Los Angeles during his performance at the Netflix Is a Joke Festival. The attacker was a man named Isaiah Lee who was purportedly angered by Chappelle's transgender jokes in his 2021 special about the LGBTQ+ community. Employee walkouts at Netflix took place in 2021, and the outrage subsequently led to the May 2022 attack. Memes, tweets and reactions surfaced online, some relating the event to Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock.

History

On May 3rd, 2022, Dave Chappelle was performing at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California during the Netflix Is a Joke Festival.^[1] Towards the end of his set, a man in a black hoodie rushed the stage, tackling Chappelle and knocking him to the ground. A video was taken by Twitter^[2] user abazar who, at the moment of the attack, took a live photo that caught the tackle. Abazar's screen-recording of the live video gained roughly 1.2 million views in less than 24 hours (shown below). Abazar's tweet only received over 640 likes, however, it was reposted on May 3rd by the Twitter^[3] account CultureCrave, which earned roughly 8,300 likes in a similar timeframe.

#davechappelle attacked at #hollywoodbowl #netflixisajoke pic.twitter.com/oP04S0de90

— abazar 🦇🔊 (@abazar) May 4, 2022

Additionally, the TikTok^[5] account rebhorn posted a video on May 4th that showed Chappelle's security team chasing the attacker around the stage. The TikTok video also included another clip of fellow performer Chris Rock coming on stage, dapping up Chappelle and saying into the microphone, "Was that Will Smith?" in reference to Will Smith slapping Rock at the 2022 Oscars. The TikTok received roughly 44,100 plays and 2,800 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Developments

Soon after the attack, people came to help Chappelle including fellow performer Chris Rock and actor Jamie Foxx who was in attendance.^[1] It was reported that Chappelle told the audience, "Everybody compose themselves. I want this to be a peaceful moment." The suspect's name was later revealed as Isaiah Lee, a 23-year-old man. A spokesperson for the event stated he rushed the stage with, "a replica handgun with a knife."

Lee was subsequently booked for felony assault with a deadly weapon,^[8] and it's unclear exactly what his motive was, though it's purported he was angered by Chappelle's previous jokes about trans people.^[9] On May 4th, Twitter user e5quire shared a video after the attack that showed Chappelle joking about how he "stomped a n***a backstage," receiving over 1.3 million views and 20,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

Here is a video of the aftermath. #DaveChappelle handled this like a champ! #HollywoodBowl pic.twitter.com/0xaBpWsbrT

— E5QUIRE (@e5quire) May 4, 2022

The Attacker Beat Up

Early in the morning of May 4th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user ab_a_w_p posted a video from after the show, showing the suspect, Isaiah Lee, being rolled into an ambulance on a stretcher. He appeared bloodied and bashed with a broken arm, alluding that he'd been beaten up by Chappelle's security team after the attack. It was reported by news outlets^[1] that Chappelle's team members were the ones who corralled him moments after he rushed the stage. The video (shown below) received roughly 3.5 million views and 6,500 likes in less than 24 hours.

Definitely don’t tackle #DaveChappelle while he’s performing on stage 😬 pic.twitter.com/X0Lbi8ghsf

— AlexGB.sfm (@ab_a_w_p) May 4, 2022

Related Memes

Dave Chappelle's Security Guards

The most prominent meme about the incident was related to Chappelle's security team beating up the attacker to the point of hospitalization. These types of memes and reactions populated Twitter going into early May 2022. For instance, on May 4th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user walkgoodetienne, who was at the show, relayed the series of events in a tweet, stating, "gotta be the wildest live show i’ve ever seen," earning roughly 22,100 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Also on May 4th, Twitter^[7] user J_Squit captioned an image of a man who'd been trampled with, "This how they did the dude that attacked Dave Chappelle," earning roughly 16,800 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References