Kevin Hart Praises Dave Chappelle’s Team for Beating Up Attacker: ‘Somebody Getting Their A** Whooped Sends a Message Out’
Kevin Hart does not think what happened to Dave Chappelle during his set at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday was “scary.”
“Not scary, but alright,” Hart said to Mike Birbiglia on Thursday’s edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live after the guest host brought up the incident. “Somebody ran on stage and got their ass whooped. That’s not scary. That’s not scary.”
Chappelle was ambushed by an armed attacker, suspected to be 23-year-old Isaiah Lee, during the middle of his set on Tuesday.
The alleged tackler was quickly met by members of Chappelle’s team, who beat him up badly enough to bruise his face and break his arm.
Hart went on to call the incident, something that “needed to happen,” a claim that was quickly protested by Birgilia.
“Mike, do you want people to continue to think that they can cross that line? And break the barrier?” Hart asked. “Somebody getting their ass whopped sends a message out to the other people — like, you know, ‘I was thinking about doing that, but after seeing that I don’t really wanna do that.'”
Hart then said that lines have gotten blurred regarding acceptable behavior during live sets — clearly referencing Will Smith‘s instantly of Chris Rock at the Oscars.
“And sometimes you got to take a couple steps backwards to take some steps forwards,” he continued. “I think that moment that we just witnessed with Dave is like foggy-ing up a bigger moment.”
The comedian went on to praise Chappelle for finishing the show following the attack, hailing him for not letting the moment “be a big thing.”
“Quickly moved on from it and got back to doing comedy,” he said. “And that’s what a professional does. Ultimately, you know, these moments of unprofessionalism should not break professionals.”
“Somebody getting their ass whooped sends a message to other people, you know?” Hart added. “I was thinking about doing that, but after seeing that, I don’t want to do that.”
Watch above, via ABC.
