Hands off Dave Chappelle!

The attack on Dave Chappelle last night was chilling. Sure, Chappelle wasn’t hurt. His attacker, having encountered the ire of Chappelle’s quick-witted security team, seems to have come off a lot worse. But the fact that controversial comics are now being physically accosted is deeply concerning. It suggests that the new intolerance, the widespread distaste for anything ‘offensive’, might be reaching its violent stage.

Chappelle was recording a Netflix special at the Hollywood Bowl when a man leapt on stage and barged violently into him. According to the LAPD the man was carrying a replica gun that shoots out a knife blade ‘when you discharge it correctly’. So this was a very serious incident. It seems reasonable to suspect that this person intended to cause Mr Chappelle significant harm. Chappelle, being the consummate comic, swiftly milked the incident for laughs. ‘It was a trans man’, he said to the audience, a nod to his penchant for cracking gags about transgenderism.