Comedian Dave Chappelle was attacked while performing onstage at the Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival.
The festival had seen a number of big name comedians attend and perform across the 11-day event, but the Chappelle incident and the fallout is now the most-talked-about aspect of it.
On Tuesday May 3, a man stormed the stage and tackled Chappelle to the ground. Chappelle then told the crowd he went backstage and "stomped" him, while Chris Rock walked on stage to jokingly ask if the assailant had been Will Smith, who'd slapped Rock onstage at the Oscars a month prior. Audience footage and clips shared online shows various angles of the incident, while other clips show a man purported to be the suspect being taken into an ambulance with what appeared to be a dislocated arm.
Footage from the event shows other comedians were in attendance including Rock, Jamie Foxx and Jimmy Carr.
What is Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival?
Produced by Netflix in association with Live Nation, Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival is an event set up to celebrate the best in comedy from April 28 to May 8, 2022.
While the Chappelle incident happened at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the entire festival featured 250 shows across over 30 venues around the city. The shows ranged from stand-up sets to Q&As, live reads and more.
Netflix marketed it as "The biggest comedy event in history—probably"
Who performed at Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival?
The festival has already featured dozens of big name comedians with many of them performing on the night of Chappelle's set on May 3.
Performing stand-up comedy are Chappelle, Rock, Carr, Anthony Jeselnik, Bill Burr, Michelle Wolf and more. Other comedians performing shows include Pete Davidson, David Letterman, Amy Schumer, Ben Schwartz, Eddie Izzard, Ellen DeGeneres, Aziz Ansari, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.
The list goes on with Conan O'Brien, Marc Maron, Katherine Ryan, Jerry Seinfeld, Joel McHale and Ken Jeong, Wanda Sykes, Patton Oswalt, Seth Rogen, John Mulaney, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.
How do I watch Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival?
Netflix have yet to confirm whether or not footage from the festival will be broadcast on their streaming platform, but it is possible to watch clips from the event for free. Netflix posted a clip of Davidson joking about his pre-Met Gala spray tan from the festival over the weekend.
The Netflix Is A Joke YouTube channel has uploaded several videos with highlights of the different shows and events. This has included clips including Davidson, Chelsea Handler, Jay Pharoah, as well as live table reads with Seth Rogen and friends.
Full hour-long episodes of Arsenio! with Arsenio Hall have been uploaded to the YouTube channel too.
The festival is still continuing in Los Angeles so anyone in the area can go and attend one of the many events before the festival ends on May 8. New events are being added in the days leading towards the end of the festival like Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill and The Drop In Hosted by Mark Normand.
The full list of events and the ticket information can be found at netflixisajokefest.com
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jamie Burton is a Newsweek Senior TV and Film Reporter (Interviews) based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
