By Mark Gray
9:32am PDT, May 8, 2022
_
This is no laughing matter. On May 3, Dave Chappelle was attacked by an armed man while performing on stage in Los Angeles. Luckily, Dave was unharmed and the man was arrested (and roughed up by Dave's crew.) But, in the wake of yet another high-profile on-stage attack (read: Will Smith at the Oscars,) several comedians are sounding off, as they're now fearful of what audience members might do.
Click through to see how A-list comedians are reacting to the attack…
RELATED: Iconic comedians
_
"The war on comedians keeps going on. I love this, this is so America. The guy had a real knife inside of a fake gun. Wanna sneak a knife in somewhere? Hide it in a gun." –Bill Maher
_
Joe Rogan can't believe Dave Chappelle's attacker wasn't charged with a felony, especially considering he had a weapon. On Instagram, Joe wrote, "When you see that a person commits a clear crime, and does it to one of the most loved performers alive, and does it in a very high profile public setting, and it gets captured on video, and you don't charge that person for what they obviously did, it's the kind of thing that makes people lose faith in law enforcement. That's never good."
_
Kevin Hart had nothing but admiration for Dave Chappelle on the heels of the attack. He also felt that a message was sent to anyone who planned on interrupting a show. "Somebody getting their a** whipped sends a message out to other people that was like, 'You know, I was thinking about doing that, but seeing that, I don't really want to do that,'" Kevin said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live! on May 5. "I think that the world that we're in right now, there's a lot of lines that have gotten blurred, and sometimes you got to take a couple steps backwards to take some steps forwards." He noted, "Dave went back after and finished doing the show and didn't let that thing be a big thing. He quickly moved on from it and got back to doing comedy, and that's what a professional does. Ultimately, these moments of [un]professionalism should not break professionals. They shouldn't shape or mold the world that we're now being seen or viewed in. I think it's time to get back to a place of respect for your live entertainer."
_
"My biggest fear 40 years ago was not getting a laugh, and then cancel culture came along and then it was like, 'Oh, my God if somebody doesn't like your joke or you overstepped your line, you could lose your career,' and then after the Academy Awards … I said, 'Violence triggers violence,'" Howie Mandel told "Extra."
_
Jamie Foxx helped take down Dave Chappelle's attacker on May 3. At the end of the show, footage showed the "Ray" actor praising his pal. "Listen, I just want to say, this man is an absolute genius," Jamie said. "We've got to make sure we protect him at all times. For every comedian who comes out here, this means everything. You're a genius. You're a legend, I enjoyed myself thoroughly, and we're not going to let nothing happen to you."
_
Chris Rock — who was slapped on stage at the Oscars by Will Smith after making a joke at Jada Pinkett Smith's expense — was on hand during the Dave Chappelle incident. Trying to lighten the mood after the Tuesday night attack, Chris said, "Was that Will Smith?"
_
Heather McDonald is now offering police officers free front row tickets to her shows. "This was one of my predictions that I did not want to become true," she said on Instagram. "Any police officers that would like to attend my upcoming show in Napa on June 17, please DM me. I suggest other comedians offer to do the same." She told TMZ, "Unlike, Dave Chappelle, I travel alone and do not have private security or ten strapping male friends hanging out backstage when I perform."
_
"We're all still sort of adjusting and evaluating what happened around Will Smith. Do you remember for a couple of days no one really wanted to say that was wrong… At the time I was like, This is a bit weird because I really like Will Smith. He's lovely, but it can't be right to attack someone on stage," Russell Brand said in a lengthy YouTube reaction. "What is happening to our culture? We're in this continual state of fraught conflict and uncertainty with no principles to return to, no recourse to a set of shared values that we all know are basically correct." In condemning the violent acts against Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, he said, "Increasingly it seems like the social function of comedians is to tell the truth, is to get into difficult spaces and explore the tensions that exist there. If we're going to see these figures shut down first online and then physically rushed on stage at concerts, how are we going to evolve out of this stage, because I'll tell you this, this phase of civilization isn't working and isn't going to work."
_
In discussing his upcoming show at Dodger's Stadium, Gabriel Iglesias spoke about staying safe, telling TMZ, "Because of the way we've been touring, we've already taking a lot of precautions. I have the best security detail. I have an awesome team in place of professionals. Someone jumped up on stage at my show in Seattle last week and they were taken down professionally before they even got to me."
