Footage of Dave Chappelle being attacked on stage and the Will Smith comment Chris Rock made in response has been shared online.
Chappelle was performing at the Netflix is a Joke festival in Los Angeles when a man ran on stage and “lunged” at him. Footage shared by those in attendance shows security detaining the man and taking him away.
Another surprise came when Rock, who was also performing the event, came on stage and asked Chappelle: “Was that Will Smith?”
This was a reference to the controversial incident that saw Smith slap Rock while he was presenting an award at the Oscars, after Rock cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.
A number of attendees at the event confirmed the incident had occurred, with TikTok user @rebhorn stitching footage of both the stage attack and Rock’s joke together into one video.
Author Julissa Natzely Arce Raya called the moment “the wildest s** I have ever seen”.
Twitter user @walkgoodetienne added: “Seeing Dave Chappelle get attacked by somebody from the audience then seeing the dude get jumped by Dave Chappelle and his crew gotta be the wildest live show I’ve ever seen. Chris Rock even came on stage, embraced Dave, grabbed the mic, and said ‘Will, was that you?!’”
Jimmy Finn commented: “Yes Dave Chappelle was attacked by a man on stage tonight, yes Chris Rock grabbed the mic and joked that it was Will Smith after, yes I was there to witness it all… that’s just a typical tuesday night here in LA.”
Twitter user @dwannb added: “I got my money’s worth tonight at the Hollywood Bowl.”
Many couldn’t quite believe the incident had happened, with @EzraCeleste commenting on the footage: “I thought this was a joke, it actually happened.”
Immediately after, Chappelle made another joke about the attacked being a “trans man”, which has attracted criticism on social media.
This was the third time Rock has publicly commented on the Smith incident.
Days after it happened, he told the crowd at a stand-up set that he was “still processing” what happened to him druing the live broadcast. Smith apologised for his actions, and has since been banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years.
