- Charles Barkley reacts to Kyrie Irving and Dave Chappelle CNN
- Stein: Kyrie Irving ‘itching to get back on the floor’ but situation remains ‘fluid’ Nets Daily
- Charles Barkley Has Brutally Honest Admission On ‘Free Speech’ The Spun
- NBPA VP Jaylen Browns takes aim at Joe Tsai over Kyrie Irving ban: ‘It’s time for a larger conversation’ New York Daily News
- Mark Cuban on Kyrie Irving and Kanye West anti-Semitic comments – “You’d just assume they’re crazy and keep on walking” Basketball Network
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Tag Archives: dave chappelle
Dave Chappelle’s ‘SNL’ monologue sparks backlash as being antisemitic
CNN
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Dave Chappelle’s comments about the Jewish community during his “Saturday Night Live” monologue are being slammed as antisemitic.
Anti-Defamation League chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt took to Twitter on Sunday to criticize the comedian and the NBC late night show.
“We shouldn’t expect @DaveChappelle to serve as society’s moral compass, but disturbing to see @nbcsnl not just normalize but popularize #antisemitism,” Greenblatt tweeted. “Why are Jewish sensitivities denied or diminished at almost every turn? Why does our trauma trigger applause?”
The controversial comic hosted the show and addressed the firestorm around Kanye West, who has legally changed his name to “Ye,” following his remarks about Jewish people.
Chappelle began the show by reading a statement which said “I denounce antisemitism in all its forms and I stand with my friends in the Jewish community.”
“And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time,” Chappelle joked.
He went on to say that Ye had broken “the show business rules” which are “the rules of perception.”
“If they’re Black, then it’s a gang. If they’re Italian, it’s a mob,” Chappelle said. “But if they’re Jewish, it’s a coincidence and you should never speak about it.”
Chappelle went on to talk about the abundance of Jewish people in Hollywood.
“But that doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “There’s a lot of Black people in Ferguson, Missouri. Doesn’t mean they run the place.”
Chappelle said he could see “if you had some kind of issue, you might go out to Hollywood and start connecting some kind of lines and you could maybe adopt the illusion that Jews run show business.”
“It’s not a crazy thing to think,” he said. “But it’s a crazy thing to say out loud.”
Writer Adam Feldman tweeted “That Dave Chappelle SNL monologue probably did more to normalize anti-Semitism than anything Kanye said.”
“Everyone knows Kanye is nuts,” Feldman wrote. “Chappelle posits himself as a teller of difficult truths. It’s worse.”
CNN has reached out to reps for Chappelle and NBC for comment.
Dave Chappelle talks Kanye, antisemitism and Trump in ‘SNL’ monologue
CNN
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Dave Chappelle addressed several contentious topics in his latest “Saturday Night Live” monologue, focusing mostly on Kanye West’s recent antisemitic comments.
In a lengthy stand-up set, Chappelle name-checked former President Donald Trump and Senate candidate Herschel Walker – and also may have alluded to the negative reaction to jokes he’s made about transgender people.
Before he began his routine, he unfolded a small piece of paper and read from it: “‘I denounce antisemitism in all its forms. And I stand with my friends in the Jewish community.’ And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time.”
On the topic of West, Chappelle said he typically approached the rapper when West was embroiled in a controversy – but this time, Chappelle said, he waited to observe the response to West’s antisemitic statements. Chappelle also joked that “Kanye got in so much trouble, Kyrie got in trouble,” referencing the NBA star suspended by the Brooklyn Nets for comments after sharing a link to an antisemitic movie on social media.
Chappelle said he could see how West would “adopt the delusion that the Jews run show business,” saying it’s “not a crazy thing to think – but it’s a crazy thing to say out loud in a climate like this.”
He went on: “I know the Jewish people have been through terrible things all over the world, but you can’t blame that on Black Americans. You just can’t.”
In an apparent nod to the backlash some comics receive when audiences find their jokes offensive, Chappelle ended the monologue by admitting to the audience he no longer enjoyed performing in front of large crowds, saying “it shouldn’t be this scary to talk about anything, it makes my job incredibly difficult.”
“I hope they don’t take anything away from me,” he said. “Whoever they are.”
Chappelle has made explicit jokes about trans women’s bodies and misgendered trans people in several stand-up specials released in the last few years. Criticism of his comments quickly mounted in 2021 following the release of his multi-million dollar Netflix special, “The Closer,” offending LGBTQ advocates and leading some Netflix employees to protest the company and call for the special to be removed.
Netflix stood by the special, which was later nominated for two Emmys. Chappelle addressed the criticism on tour shortly after the release of his special, telling his audience he was willing to talk with trans critics but was not “bending to anybody’s demands.”
Dave Chappelle on ‘SNL’: A timeline of the controversy around his transgender jokes
CNN
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Tonight Dave Chappelle will host “Saturday Night Live” for the third time – an appearance that is courting controversy before he even takes the stage.
The comedian has drawn increasing ire in recent years for making jokes aimed at transgender people, and the outcry grew louder last fall when Netflix released a Chappelle special, “The Closer,” in which he doubled down on his comments.
Netflix stood by Chappelle, who went on a national tour after the special and largely ignored the controversy after addressing it in his act.
But his comments were criticized by fellow comics, fans, trans advocates and some Netflix employees, and a Minnesota venue canceled a Chappelle show this year over the controversy.
Given that context, it was surprising to some “SNL” viewers to see him invited back to Studio 8H. Here’s a look at Chappelle’s recent history of jokes about trans people – and the resulting backlash.
August: In a series of stand-up shows at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, Chappelle made jokes aimed at trans people for at least 20 minutes, Vulture reported. He made explicit jokes about trans people’s bodies and referred to trans people as “transgenders,” among other comments, Vulture said.
These weren’t the first jokes Chappelle had made at trans people’s expense. But he delivered them in New York after drawing some backlash for earlier comments.
“That joke and others in this section suffer from the same problems as those from his specials – they are rooted in disgust and generalization,” Vulture wrote of a Chappelle joke about ISIS fighters being horrified by transgender soldiers. “They’re just not good.”
August 26: Netflix released a stand-up special, “Sticks and Stones,” in which Chappelle performed more material about trans people, including some content from his Radio City shows. In an epilogue to the special, he brought up his friend Daphne Dorman, a trans comedian, whom he said laughed hardest at his jokes about trans people.
October 5: Netflix released Chappelle’s special “The Closer.” In it, he goes on an extended tangent about transgender people and makes several jokes at their expense. He misgenders a trans comedian, once again makes explicit jokes about trans women’s bodies and defends TERFs, or trans-exclusionary radical feminists.
He also referred to trans people as “transgenders,” states that “gender is a fact” and later says that Dorman died by suicide shortly after she was criticized by other trans people for defending Chappelle after “Sticks and Stones.”
At the time Chappelle’s special was released, at least 33 states had introduced anti-transgender legislation, much of it aimed at young trans people.
October 13: Amid calls from LGBTQ advocates, fellow comedians, Netflix employees and social justice organizations to pull the special, Netflix stood by Chappelle.
In a letter obtained by the Verge and Variety, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos told employees that the special will remain available to stream.
“We don’t allow titles on Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe ‘The Closer’ crosses that line … Some people find the art of stand-up to be mean spirited but our members enjoy it, and it’s an important part of our content offering,” Sarandos wrote.
Netflix suspended three employees for attending a virtual meeting of directors to discuss the special without notifying the meeting organizer in advance. Among them was Terra Field, a trans senior software engineer who had publicly criticized the special and Netflix. Her suspension was later reversed.
October 19: Sarandos told Variety he “screwed up” his communications with Netflix employees but reaffirmed he did not believe the special qualifies as “hate speech.”
October 20: Around 65 demonstrators, including Netflix employees and trans advocates, participated in a walkout in protest of Netflix’s support of “The Closer.” The demonstrators called on Netflix to hire more trans and non-binary executives and fund more trans and non-binary talent.
October 24: Three trans stand-up comics told CNN they were disappointed by Chappelle’s jokes, even though all three said they once considered the celebrated performer as a comedy inspiration. While all of them agreed that jokes about trans people aren’t inherently offensive, they said Chappelle’s set was infused with the same hateful rhetoric and language used by anti-transgender critics.
“When he talks about the trans community, he’s not talking about them, he’s speaking out against them,” comedian Nat Puff told CNN. “And that’s the difference between saying something funny about the trans community and saying something offensive about the trans community.”
A fourth comic, Flame Monroe, one of the only trans comics whose material is streaming on Netflix, told CNN she believes Chappelle should be allowed to joke about trans people, even though she initially was taken aback by some of his comments.
October 25: Chappelle addressed critics at a show in Nashville, appearing alongside Joe Rogan, the podcast host who’s been criticized for dismissing the effectiveness of vaccines and using racial slurs, among other controversies.
Chappelle released videos on his official Instagram account from the set, in which he seemingly addressed the trans employees at Netflix who participated in the walkout over “The Closer.”
“It seems like I’m the only one who can’t go to the office anymore,” he said.
“I want everyone in this audience to know that even though the media frames it as though it’s me versus that community, that’s not what it is,” Chappelle went on. “Do not blame the LBGTQ (sic) community for any of this s—. This has nothing to do with them. It’s about corporate interest and what I can say and what I cannot say.”
“For the record – and I need you to know this – everyone I know from that community has been nothing but loving and supportive. So I don’t know what all this nonsense is about.”
July 12: “The Closer” was nominated for two Emmys, including “outstanding variety special (pre-recorded).” Adele later won the category.
July 21: A Minneapolis venue canceled Chappelle’s sold-out show hours before its doors were set to open, apologizing to “staff, artists and our community” after receiving criticism for hosting Chappelle.
“We believe in diverse voices and the freedom of artistic expression, but in honoring that, we lost sight of the impact this would have,” wrote First Avenue, the venue famous for being featured in Prince’s “Purple Rain” film.
November 5: “Saturday Night Live” announced Chappelle would be its post-midterms host. The backlash was swift.
Field joked on Twitter: “Wait I thought I cancelled (sic) him. Is it possible cancel culture isn’t a real thing??”
November 10: After the New York Post reported that several “SNL” writers are boycotting Saturday’s episode, Chappelle’s representatives told CNN there are no issues with writers or cast members. “SNL’s” current staff includes nonbinary cast member Molly Kearney and nonbinary writer Celeste Yim.
Chappelle will take the stage live Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET.
Dave Chappelle’s rep says there is no ‘SNL’ writers boycott ahead of his hosting gig
CNN
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Dave Chappelle’s representative is pushing back on a report that claimed “Saturday Night Live” writers were staging a boycott ahead of his hosting the show this weekend.
On Wednesday, The New York Post, citing an anonymous source, reported writers on the show were going to sit out on the episode.
“We’ve seen nothing to support media reports of a writer’s boycott,” Chappelle’s rep told CNN in a statement. “In fact, the writers delivered over 40 sketches for Dave’s consideration and collaboration. Just as during Dave’s past ‘SNL’ appearances, you won’t want to miss it!”
It will be Chappelle’s third time hosting.
‘SNL’ made the announcement about his return to Studio 8H last week.
News of Chappelle’s hosting was met with some furor on social media given his controversial comments over the years about the transgender community, especially given that the show announced in September that it was adding its first non-binary cast member, comedian and actor Molly Kearney, and has a trans non-binary writer, Celeste Yim.
CNN has reached out to representatives for “SNL,” its creator Lorne Michaels, Kearney and Yim for comment.
Chappelle has made jokes about the trans community in sets over the years and found himself on the receiving end of backlash from some members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies.
Most recently, 2021 Netflix special “The Closer” increased the ire after Chappelle said he was “team TERF,” the abbreviated term for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.”
“Gender is a fact,” Chappelle said during the special. “Every human being in this room, every human being on earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on earth. That is a fact.”
Approximately 65 Netflix employees staged a walkout amid the controversy and, earlier this year, one venue canceled Chappelle’s planned appearance after receiving criticism over the decision to have him perform.
Netflix stood by its decision to stream the special.
The Emmys Have a Dave Chappelle Problem
Earlier this year, Louis C.K. proved his own “cancellation” was a myth when his big comeback special Sincerely Louis C.K. not only landed a nomination but went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Don’t be surprised if Dave Chappelle pulls off a similar trick at the Emmys.
Now, to be fair, hateful speech is not the same as C.K.’s abusive behavior, but it now feels inevitable that Chappelle’s controversial Netflix special The Closer will be rewarded by the Television Academy when nominations are announced this Tuesday.
In addition to Chappelle’s Netflix special, the nominations for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) are expected to include some non-comedy entries as well, including Adele’s One Night Only concert and a similarly problematic Harry Potter 20th anniversary reunion on HBO Max. But it is comedy—and Chappelle, specifically—that have dominated the category in recent years. The comedian’s previous Netflix specials Equanimity, in which he defended Louis C.K., and Stick and Stones, in which he mocked Michael Jackson’s accusers, won the award in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
If The Closer is included among the nominees, it will be despite immense backlash against the transphobic jokes at its center—and the comedian’s continued obsession with that topic. Even after he was attacked on stage at the Hollywood Bowl, Chappelle quickly joked that the assailant must have been a “trans man.” More recently, he assailed students who criticized him as “instruments of oppression.”
But it will also come at a time when Chappelle—much more so than Louis C.K.—has maintained the support of the comedy community, speaking on behalf of his friend Jon Stewart at the recent Mark Twain Prize ceremony—an honor he received himself in 2019—and making a surprise appearance on one of John Mulaney’s summer tour stops that drew criticism from fans who felt bombarded by his anti-LGBTQ+ jokes.
So ahead of the nomination announcement this week, here are five comedy specials that deserve a spot over The Closer.
Jerrod Carmichael — Rothaniel
Of all the specials on this list, Carmichael’s game-changing hour is (hopefully) the most likely to make it into the final crop of nominees. Directed by his frequent collaborator—and the man who should have won last year’s award in this category—Bo Burnham, Rothaniel is a sneakily hilarious and moving set that promises to uncover multiple secrets about Carmichael and delivers. Coming out as a gay man is among the least surprising things the comedian reveals about himself over the course of the laid-back hour, which evolves into a sort of public therapy session with the hyper-engaged audience.
Moses Storm — Trash White
When comedian Moses Storm dropped by The Last Laugh podcast back in January, I called his HBO Max special Trash White the first great stand-up special of 2022. Not only is it visually dazzling with a set made out of literal white trash, but Storm has a hell of a story to tell about growing up in a doomsday cult and reckoning with how that unconventional childhood has impacted his ability to exist as an adult in the world. And on top of that, it includes a beautifully rendered, inadvertent tribute to the late Bob Saget, who played a surprisingly big role in Storm’s upbringing.
Ronny Chieng — Speakeasy
Speakeasy, gorgeously filmed in New York’s Chinatown, is The Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng’s excellent follow-up to 2019’s equally hilarious Asian Comedian Destroys America! Instead of complaining about “cancel culture,” Chieng flips the script by daring viewers to “cancel” him so he can stop being so successful, go back home to Singapore and see his mother for the first time in several years. “If you commit a crime, you go to jail. That’s not cancel culture, that’s a felony,” he told me earlier this year. “So when I did that bit, I was making fun of the ‘woke’ Twitter people who try to cancel everybody. And then I was making fun of the right-wing, who think that cancel culture is all-powerful.”
Taylor Tomlinson — Look at You
In her debut Netflix special Quarter-Life Crisis, Taylor Tomlinson broke through the noise and quickly established herself as one of the most confident young stand-up comedians in the game. Her 2022 follow-up Look at You proved it wasn’t a fluke. Now, at just 28 years old, she has already achieved her wildest comedy dreams, culminating with her first big theater tour this fall. The Emmys will presumably have many more opportunities to honor Tomlinson down the line, but they might as well start now. Her bit comparing imbalanced couples to chocolate-covered raisins alone deserves some sort of award.
Roy Wood Jr. — Imperfect Messenger
If you want to see what true stand-up comedy excellence looks like, few can top another Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr., who has been at it for more than two decades and just gets better with every special he puts out. For evidence of his mastery, look no further than the long run about how Leonardo DiCaprio’s role as an evil slaver in Django Unchained makes him an “underrated white ally.” But that joke is just one of many in Comedy Central’s Imperfect Messenger that intelligently takes on relevant issues in the culture without punching down or pissing off entire groups of marginalized people.
Bonus: Naomi Ekperigin on The Standups and River Butcher’s A Different Kind of Dude
So, these two are kind of a cheat because, as part of Netflix’s The Standups and Comedy Central’s Stand-Up Presenting series, respectively, the half-hour specials from Naomi Ekperigin and River Butcher don’t exactly qualify for this category at the Emmys. But I would put both sets up there with any of the hour-long specials released by more seasoned comics over the past year. Each comedian uses their 30 minutes to introduce themselves to the world in very different ways. By the time they inevitably land their own hours, they will no doubt both deserve to be in the Emmy conversation for real.
For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast.
Norm Macdonald Faces Death as Only He Can in Posthumous Netflix Special
We were never supposed to see the posthumous Norm Macdonald special that landed on Netflix this Memorial Day, eight months after the comedian’s premature death from a very private bout with cancer.
In Nothing Special, which was filmed without an audience in the summer of 2020, Macdonald looks more gaunt than he had in recent years. He’s wearing headphones and holding a handheld mic in a nondescript room as he delivers his unfinished material in one long take.
The jokes are punctuated by occasional yaps from an off-screen dog. When his cellphone rings mid-bit, he picks it up. “I’ve got to call you back on account of I’m doing a special,” he says into the phone with a sly smirk on his face.
Behind the camera is Macdonald’s longtime producing partner Lori Jo Hoekstra, who was among the very few people in his life who knew he was dying.
“Norm worked so hard on a new hour of material and wanted it to be seen,” Hoekstra said in a statement about the project. “While this version of Nothing Special was not originally meant to be the final product, COVID restrictions prevented him from filming in front of an audience. We want to make sure his fans see this very funny hour. He left this gift for all of us.”
The hour is very funny at times, and also far less polished than it would have been had Macdonald gotten the chance to fully work it out in front of audiences and then tape it in a proper venue. But the unusual format gives us a glimpse into both his process as a comedian and the state of his mind toward the end of his life.
There is some unexpectedly progressive material about reparations for Native Americans and even the #MeToo movement—especially given the allegations that surfaced following his passing—and long digressions about topics like cannibalism that few other comics could pull off. But there is also a section very early on that mocks the idea of being trans and is sure to alienate some fans in the same way Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais have sparked controversy on Netflix in recent months.
That joke, a version of which was also in Macdonald’s set when I saw him perform at the New York Comedy Festival in the fall of 2019, centers on how his father’s outdated views on gender would be perceived today. He sarcastically says he’s only trying to show how “hateful we were back then.” Noting that his dad did “good stuff” like fighting Hitler in World War II, he says he also had an “evil side,” which he describes as “this crazy idea he had that having a cock had something to do with being a boy.”
“Nowadays, we can’t even wrap our heads around that kind of thinking,” he deadpans. “But people used to actually think that way. Isn’t that something?”
From his early days as “Weekend Update” anchor on Saturday Night Live, Macdonald has always been more interested in shocking viewers with his unexpected punchlines on topical issues than he was sharing intimate details about himself, to the point that he wrote an entire “memoir” called Based on a True Story made up of fake anecdotes about his life. Here, he includes jokes about an imaginary wife named “Ruth” and tackles hot-button topics like “systematic racism,” as he puts it, while at the same time mocking the very idea that anyone should be looking to comedians for political opinions.
“Here, he includes jokes about an imaginary wife named “Ruth” and tackles hot-button topics like “systematic racism,” as he puts it, while at the same time mocking the very idea that anyone should be looking to comedians for political opinions.”
“When you’re a comedian, they expect you to know things,” he says, a relatively recent phenomenon that he experienced when interviewers—like this one—started asking him to weigh in on politics during the Trump era. He explains that he prefers not to pay close attention to politics “on account of you only get one life.”
Macdonald does, however, start to confront his own mortality when he says he stopped “painting” his hair black because he doesn’t want to “die and be surprised.” He plays out a scenario in which God tells him, “I mean, I made your hair white, what did you think that was all about? I was telling you to get your affairs in order, for God’s sake.”
He describes himself as a Christian, but says one of his “biggest fears” is that he “picked the wrong religion.” Macdonald imagines dying, going to the afterlife and saying, “Ahh, it’s you! I thought it was the other fella. I should have been slaying apostates the entire time. Ah well, what are you gonna do?”
Toward the end of the set, Macdonald frets about making the special too “depressing” before transitioning into some material about what it’s like to write a “living will” and a handful of extremely dark jokes about how eager his own family would be to pull the plug should he ever end up in a coma—without ever acknowledging his cancer directly.
Ultimately, he closes with a surprisingly sweet joke about his mother Ferne, who outlived her son, and was with him in his final moments. Still, it ends with the punchline, “I don’t want to suck her tits!”
After the screen fades to black, viewers are treated to an immediate reaction from six of Macdonald’s closest friends and admirers who gathered together to watch the special earlier this month: David Letterman, Dave Chappelle, Molly Shannon, Conan O’Brien, Adam Sandler, and David Spade.
Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special: David Letterman, Molly Shannon, Dave Chappelle, Conan O’Brien, Adam Sandler, David Spade for Netflix Is a Joke Fest.
Tommaso Boddi/Netflix
They begin by marveling at Macdonald’s ability to hold attention without the presence of an audience. “It’s not strictly stand-up, it’s something else,” an awed Letterman says, adding that the “great gift” would have been to watch Macdonald perform those jokes in front of a crowd.
Sandler shares that, to him, the special felt more like the “gentle Norm” who would hang out on the tour bus after shows. “It looked like he just wanted to get everything out,” he observes, before he no longer had the chance.
“My favorite comedy, it’s counterintuitive, but it makes people feel safe, like everything’s going to be alright,” Chappelle adds. “This guy was, in a weird way, reconciling his mortality, hilariously. And ironically, he’s no longer with us. We’re sitting in the aftermath of Norm Macdonald, watching him be incredibly alive.”
Before long, the comics are reminiscing about the unique experience of being friends with Macdonald, a man who knew how to make them laugh when they were down but became increasingly distant in recent years. As close as some of them were to him, they each reveal that they had no idea how sick he was in the months leading up to his death.
“I thought, maybe I’m the only one who doesn’t know,” O’Brien says at one point. “But he didn’t want anybody to know.” When news of Macdonald’s death broke in the fall of 2021, he says, “We were so upset that we didn’t get a chance to tell him what he meant to us.”
They all agree that Macdonald wouldn’t have “tolerated” that kind of sentimental outpouring of emotional support while he was alive. And yet his final special shows that even within his darkest jokes, there was a man who knew what it meant to love and be loved.
For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast.
Ricky Gervais Grilled For Anti-Trans Jokes In New Netflix Special
Another Netflix comedy special is under fire for anti-trans jokes months after the company faced backlash for similar comments during Dave Chappelle’s special in 2021.
British comedian Ricky Gervais, who released “SuperNature” with the streaming giant on Tuesday, is facing criticism for transphobic remarks he made in the comedy special. One of the remarks, Variety reported, included a joke about women with penises.
“Like, the worst thing you can say today, get you cancelled on Twitter, death threats, the worst thing you can say today is, ‘Women don’t have penises,’ right?” Gervais said. “Now, no one saw that coming. You won’t find a 10-year-old tweet of someone saying, ‘Women don’t have penises.’ You know why? We didn’t think we fucking had to.”
Gervais also made a joke indicating “old-fashioned women” have wombs while new ones have “beards and cocks.”
GLAAD, an organization that combats anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, issued a statement blasting the content in Gervais’ special on Tuesday:
It’s not the first time Gervais has offended the LGBTQ community. In a 2018 Netflix special, he reflected on a transphobic joke aimed at Caitlyn Jenner that he made during a speech at the 2016 Golden Globe Awards, USA Today reported.
“I’m playing with the notion of stereotypes,” Gervais said of the joke in 2018.
Gervais said that he didn’t change as much as Caitlyn Jenner, a trans woman, in a year’s time and he joked that her car crash in 2015, which claimed the life of a 69-year-old woman, didn’t help stereotypes about women drivers.
Gervais was also slammed for past transphobic tweets, tweets he would later call jokes.
His special comes less than a month after Netflix, in a revised company memo, said it would not “censor specific artists or voices” even if staff members found them harmful.
“If you find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you,” the memo stated.
Netflix has come to the defense of artists’ content despite criticism, and internal protests, in the wake of transphobic remarks made in Chappelle’s special.
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Dave Chappelle is Not Happy DA Won’t Charge Accused Onstage Attacker With Felony – NBC Los Angeles
Dave Chappelle’s lawyer says the comedian is unhappy with Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s decision not to file felony charges against the man who allegedly attacked him on stage.
“It’s a travesty of justice that Gascón is refusing to prosecute this case as a felony,” Gabriel Colwell told the New York Post on Friday. “The city attorney, who filed the case, is doing his job but DA Gascón should also do his job and charge this as a felony.
A man accused of attacking comedian Dave Chappelle faces charges. Annette Arreola reports for Today in LA on Friday May 6, 2022.
“… Entertainers in LA need to know this is a justice system that will protect them. There is no question here that when someone is violently assaulted by another in possession of a deadly weapon that it should be charged as a felony.”
Colwell echoed those comments to Rolling Stone magazine, telling the publication: “This is what Mr. Chappelle wants. Mr. Chappelle wants this case charged as a felony. … Ten thousand people saw Dave Chappelle assaulted on stage at the Hollywood Bowl last Tuesday night, and the assailant had a deadly weapon on him. The fact that this isn’t charged as a felony case by the DA is insane.”
Isaiah Lee, 23, was charged Thursday by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office with single misdemeanor counts of battery, possession of a weapon with intent to assault, unauthorized access to the stage area during a performance and commission of an act that delays an event or interferes with a performer.
Isaiah Lee, 23, appears in court Friday May 6, 2022 on misdemeanor charges in the attack on Dave Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl.
Lee is due back in court May 20 after pleading not guilty to the four misdemeanor counts.
Earlier Thursday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced that it would not file any felony charges against Lee.
“After reviewing the evidence, prosecutors determined that while criminal conduct occurred, the evidence as presented did not constitute felony conduct,” according to a statement from the District Attorney’s Office.
The office opted to refer the case to the City Attorney’s Office, which handles misdemeanor prosecutions.
Attempts to reach the District Attorney’s Office for a response to Colwell’s remarks on Sunday were not successful.
Authorities said Lee rushed the stage at the Bowl around 10:45 p.m. Tuesday while Chappelle was performing as part of the “Netflix Is A Joke Festival.” Online video showed Chappelle being thrown to the ground by the suspect, prompting the venue’s security staff and Chappelle’s crew to rush on stage to subdue the assailant. Among those running to protect Chappelle was actor/comedian Jamie Foxx.
Here are the misdemeanor charges against the suspect in the Dave Chappelle attack.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the suspect was in possession of a replica handgun equipped with a retractable knife blade. The LAPD circulated photos of the weapon Wednesday afternoon.
Lee tried to scramble backstage after the attack, but was forcefully subdued by security. Subsequent footage showed the bloodied assailant with facial bruises and a seemingly broken arm being placed on a gurney and taken away in an ambulance.
Lee, who was initially booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, remains jailed in lieu of $30,000 bail. If he manages to post bail and is released, he was ordered to remain at least 100 yards away from Chappelle and the Hollywood Bowl.
Lee appeared in court in downtown Los Angeles Friday with his right arm in a sling — the result of his violent arrest on stage at the Bowl, when he was quickly and forcefully detained by security and Chappelle’s entourage.
If convicted of all counts, Lee could face up to 18 months in county jail and/or up to $4,000 in fines, according to the City Attorney’s Office.
It was unclear how the suspect was able to carry a weapon into the venue. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, which oversees the Bowl, announced Thursday that it will be beefing up security at performances in response to the Chappelle attack.
On Instagram, Lee goes by the moniker “Noname_Trapper,” which is the name of a rapper whose work includes a 2020 song titled “Dave Chappelle.”
Lee posted a short video on Instagram on Tuesday, saying nothing but showing him wearing the same hooded sweatshirt in which he is pictured wearing while handcuffed to the paramedics’ gurney Tuesday night after the attack.
Lee said nothing on the short video, but used a video filter showing himself with devil-like horns on his head and blood trickling from his nose — also similar to the blood seen on his face following his detainment at the Bowl.
Tuesday’s attack occurred on the final night of a four-night engagement of Chappelle and fellow performers at the Bowl as part of the “Netflix Is A Joke Festival.”
Carla Sims, a representative for Chappelle, issued a statement Wednesday calling the attack “unfortunate and unsettling,” but said the comedian was not letting it mar the overall series of performances.
“Dave Chappelle celebrated four nights of comedy and music, setting record-breaking sales for a comedian at the Hollywood Bowl,” according to Sims. “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.”
On Thursday night, Chappelle made a surprise appearance at the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard, and according to various media reports, the comedian said he had a chance to talk to Lee before he was taken away by paramedics.
Chappelle told the crowd that Lee claimed the attack was designed to draw attention to the plight of Lee’s grandmother, who was displaced from her Brooklyn home due to gentrification.
Suspect in Dave Chappelle attack pleads not guilty to several misdemeanor charges
The man accused of attacking comedian Dave Chappelle onstage at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl arena is facing several misdemeanor charges, city attorney Mike Feuer said Thursday. The announcement comes hours after officials said the 23-year-old suspect, identified as Isaiah Lee, would not face felony charges.
Lee is charged with battery, possession of a weapon with intent to assault, unauthorized access to the stage area during a performance, and committing an act that delays an event or interferes with the performer, according to Feuer.
Lee pleaded not guilty to all four charges on Friday, according to CBS Los Angeles.
During Chappelle’s Tuesday night show, Lee tackled the comedian and pointed a weapon, later determined to be a replica handgun containing a knife blade, at him. Lee was arrested Tuesday night after being treated for his injuries at a nearby hospital and is now being held on a $30,000 bail.
His public defender argued that he needed to be released from jail iso he could access mental health services and be placed in public housing, but a judge denied the request, CBS Los Angeles reported. The judge also said that if he does pay bail, he must stay at least 100 yards away from Chapelle. If convicted, Lee could face a maximum sentence of 18 months, according to CBS Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office got the case on Thursday after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the evidence and declined to charge Lee with a felony.
Chappelle was not injured in the attack. A representative for the entertainer said he is “fully cooperating with the active police investigation into this incident.”
“The performances by Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl were epic and record-breaking and he refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of this historic moment,” Sims said.
Tucker Reals and Zoe Christen Jones contributed reporting.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct a reference to the charges.