By now, most of you have heard that Dave Chappelle was attacked by a crazy person on stage last night. Because the act was being recorded for a Netflix feature, almost nobody had a cell phone to capture video. There’s still some grainy footage but nothing great. The good news: Chappelle seems mostly unhurt. At the end, however, once the lunatic was removed from the venue by ambulance, Chis Rock came on stage with Chappelle to crack a joke we’ve been waiting for…
“Will, was that you?”
What Chris Rock joked about is more poignant than he might have realized at the time. When he asks if that is Will Smith, I would say that in some sense it was. You see, there are an increasing number of Will Smiths out there in the world today. They are people who believe that every offense they perceive is violence and that justifies them acting the way you might against real, physical violence. They’ve been indoctrinated into the belief that they get to respond in whatever uncivilized manner they wish if they feel someone or something has slighted them. It’s inappropriate and it needs to stop.
In my opinion, what we’re seeing is “cancel culture” spilling into the real world. Instead of just censoring someone by striking them from social media or communication platforms, cancelling someone in real life means bringing harm to them or making them perceive harm. Take Dave Chappelle: is he now going to be thinking in the back of his mind when he’s on stage, “my life could be in danger?” The guy who rushed the stage this time had a pretend gun, but Chappelle couldn’t have known that at the time.
We need to get away from cancel culture, centralized censorship and violent attacks on free speech. It is regressive and returns us to a less civilized time. Our society needs to be better than that.
But that’s just me.
For all the news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. Let me know your opinion on all the drama surrounding attacks on comedians.
