Dave Chappelle’s Comedy Special on Will Smith, Chris Rock Incident: The Dreamer

2024-01-02 02:22:13

The entertainment press sought for a long time an extensive comment from Dave Chappelle regarding the incident of aggression suffered by his friend, comedian Chris Rock, at the hands of actor and producer Will Smith on March 27, 2022 at the gala of The Oscar Awards.

As recalled, at one point during the ceremony, Rock made a comment regarding the baldness (actually, alopecia) of Jada Pinkett Smith, Will’s wife. Visibly uncomfortable, the star of “The Fresh Prince of Rap” stood up and slapped Rock live, completely overshadowing the film gala held in Los Angeles.

Chappelle took advantage of his most recent comedy special, The Dreamer, to talk at length regarding what happened. He did not do it directly or at the beginning of the show – which barely lasted 50 minutes. He took advantage of a situation suffered just a few weeks following Smit’s slap to Rock to compare and it was only at the end that he revealed why he has remained silent.

The Dreamer was recorded at the Lincoln Center in Washington DC, a location that Chappelle remembers with great affection because, as he says, “that’s where it all started.” Precisely, to support this, he said that a whopping 24 years ago he recorded his first one-hour comedy special there, when his wife (then just girlfriend) was pregnant with the baby “with whom today he smokes weed” in occasions. “What a difference one can make in 24 years!” he said.

“I THOUGHT IT WAS NOT REAL”

For almost 20 of the 56 minutes of The Dreamer special, Chappelle went through various moments. First it was informative. He said he saw the assault scene on television and simply mightn’t believe it. Minutes later, he called Rock.

“I thought it was all fake. I waited 30 or 40 minutes later and called him. He told me ‘you’re the only friend I’d take the call’. Apparently Obama and Oprah had already called him to see if he was okay. I asked him if it was fake, he told me no. I asked him if it hurt him. “Yeah, buddy, he hurt me.” And I knew it had been real. Only then did I feel offended. Not just because of the slap, but also because following that Will sat back and enjoyed the rest of the evening. What the fuck was that?,” he began.

After this, Chappelle moved on to a confessional tone, and chose to partly compare what happened between Will Smith and Chris Rock with a personal experience suffered less than three months later at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

As recalled, at the beginning of May 2022, an unknown person climbed onto the stage where Chappelle was giving a monologue and tried to attack him. The scene became shocking for the comedian and those present and it was even learned that the attacker was armed.

“Just three months following the attack that Chris Rock suffered, when someone came out of the audience and attacked me. Everything happened in slow motion. I thought ‘I’m being attacked’. The son of… was ragged and jumped like uoahhhgr. I’m old, but fast. I grabbed him by the head and pulled him by his sweatshirt. I still feel his head in my hand. It was fluffy. He had dreadlocks. Not that of the Rastafarians but that of the homeless of Los Angeles. I fell. He threw me to the ground. It was a bad time. At that moment I thought the bodyguards shouldn’t have been wearing dress shoes that night!”

After highlighting the shock he felt at the moment, and joking that every time he is asked regarding Smith’s attack on Rock, he says that “I have never been in such an extreme situation, but now I know that Will Smith would not have enjoyed the rest.” of that night,” he noted some details of the moment suffered on Hollwyood Boulevard. From Rock’s furtive appearance behind him to the attempt that other celebrities made to help him in front of thousands of attendees who looked on in astonishment.

“Minutes later, Chris Rock approached from behind the stage and in front of 20 thousand people, took the microphone from me and said: Is that Will Smith? The damned ones burst out laughing. I was standing there like an idiot. I was furious because I thought: man, this was my attack. You were attacked three months ago, and now you make jokes? I wanted to joke and said: he was a trans. But no one laughed. We were in Los Angeles and people said: we like trans people here, booh. I felt bad”.

“As soon as he attacked me, Jaime Foxx was the first to jump. He had a cowboy hat on, like he knew what was going to happen. He had never seen it like this. He went out to chase him like in ‘Any Given Sunday’. Jamie injured his ankles. Then Jon Stewart jumped on him as the ‘super Jew’. The boy was fast, he saw the emergency door. But Puff Duddy jumped in (makes dancing gestures blocking the emergency door). They all jumped because they saw themselves reflected in me. Chris was in the back looking like ‘Nobody helped me’. (Sings a chorus of) ‘Everybody hates Chris…’,” he revealed.

Chappelle said that, when questioned by an attendee at the show he gave following this attack, he stated that the situation did not escalate, although he confessed: “I didn’t know there was a journalist inside and the only thing I said was ‘I said the guy had a knife that was perceived as a gun. I got six months of bad press for that joke! He hadn’t done anything to the guy. Then the New York Post interviewed the attacker as if he were a hero. It turned out that the attack was my fault. I caused it! I’ve made jokes regarding homeless people, and the guy was one. There was no way for me to know. But I have to say, the guy had amazing seats for a homeless guy. I later read in the newspaper that ‘David Chappelle’s alleged attacker was bisexual’. Alleged? Do you want me to show you the video?”

Before concluding with the story of what happened at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in May 2022, Dave Chappelle intervened in reality, a classic resource in his monologues, to say that as a result of the attack, his wife ended up scared and crying. “Later at the hotel, my wife was crying and I told her: what’s wrong with you? Did they attack you too? She told me, sobbing: We would have been left with nothing. I sat on the bed next to her and took out some keys. I put them in her hands and told her: they are the keys to my safe. God forbid that nothing happens to me, but if it does, you will have everything you need in that box. She started crying harder. And I cried for a while too. Do they know that she checked the safe while I was alive? My God! She told me that she had opened the box. I said: Did you do it? Yes, and there is nothing for us. There’s just your stupid joke notebook. I told him: If you and the kids tell the jokes exactly as they are written, you will do well. “They are very good jokes,” he said, unleashing the euphoria of those present at the Lincoln Center in Washington DC.

THE EXPLANATION ON WHY SMITH-ROCK DOESN’T TALK MORE ABOUT THE SUBJECT

The entire The Dreamer special has a confessional tone linked directly to dreams of greatness. Chappelle believes that one must pursue them to the end. And he uses himself as an example, remembering when he started in comedy, in Washington and touring several states in front of stages that were not always pleasant and full of people.

Along those lines, he recalled an anecdote from his beginnings, when without having finished a monologue, they played music in the background, something he considered humiliating. From this bad moment, he exemplifies how one must overcome obstacles and persist in their dreams.

“It was so loud that they ruined everything. He was devastated. I thought they had ruined my dream. When I got off the stage I went to the production truck, kicked the door and started screaming.” The then young Chappelle looked for those responsible and they sent him to the music contractor, whom he points out as very similar to members of a “Russian mafia.”

“Two minutes later. The guy showed up with some thugs. He told me that he wanted to talk to me. He didn’t know anything regarding the street at that time. And then I found out that those guys were from the Russian mafia. I don’t know if you know, but the Russian mafia killed Denzel Washington in ‘Training Day.’ The producers told me: don’t go. I was. I knew he was in a bad situation. I cursed them. I told them they had ruined my life. They told me: your friends have lied to you. We made a deal, but they didn’t pay. When they said that I realized that he was locked in a kitchen. I was wrong and at that moment I felt afraid. I told them: I owe you an apology. I don’t care why the music was played, but it still ruined my life. The guy put his hand on my cheek and it was kind of humiliating. ‘You are a real man,’ he told me.”

Chappelle believes it is wrong to judge harshly what happened between Will Smith and Chris Rock. And he thinks so because he sees in both of them his equals, a pair of dreamers who are where they are because at some point in their lives they had obstacles and persisted.

“I am a very powerful dreamer. I’m not lying. I dreamed regarding this night when I was 14 years old and I fulfilled it at 50. Today I was walking around Washington. I was poor here and now everyone greets me as if they knew me. I said to myself ‘Dave, what a powerful dream’ (…) For all this I do not judge what happened between Will Smith and Chris Rock. You see them as great ideas, but to me you are dreamers like me. I see myself reflected in them. I’m the guy who loses his temper and slaps anyone when he says something bad regarding me or a loved one. And I’m also Chris Rock. The guy who gets slapped in front of everyone, but he keeps his composure so as not to ruin anything. That’s what men do. Men set the limits. They enforce limits and test limits,” he maintained.

In a special full of irony and that pointed for several moments at minorities who don’t do it very well, Dave Chappelle thanked the public for supporting him for years. In his early days, when he left everything—rejecting an offer of $50 million from Comedy Central—and today, when he shines, winning awards with his Netflix specials.

“That’s why I am here, in the city where the dreams I live arose. Because I wanted to tell you that they came true. And I wanted to thank you for making me the man I am today. I am living a powerful dream. Every time I come to this city and stand in front of you I think. ‘This is not my dream. It’s yours. And it is an honor to be part of it. Thank you,” he concluded.

THE DREAMER/NETFLIX

Synopsis: In this stand-up special, Dave Chappelle unleashes his unfiltered humor: from the attack he suffered on stage to the most famous slap in history.

Director: Stan Lathan

List: Dave Chappelle

Duration: 56 minutes

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