Dave Chappelle Spars With Audience After Comments About Israel and Palestine at Boston Show

Dave Chappelle verbally sparred with at least one audience member over comments the comedian made about the Israeli-Hamas conflict while performing in Boston this week, according to multiple, somewhat contradictory accounts of the show first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

According to the paper, Chappelle condemned the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas before labeling the ongoing military aggression against Gaza a war crime. As one audience member put it, “it was like witnessing a verbal hurricane.”

People who say they were in the audience have also chimed in on Reddit. One person described attending the show as “an absolute mind-blowing experience” and noted that the comedian “didn’t shy away from expressing his thoughts, acknowledging that violence from either side was just plain wrong.”

At some point, accounts agree that another audience member yelled, “Shut the f— up” at Chappelle, which changed the dynamic. They added, “He tore into the person who shouted out and didn’t hold back on his thoughts about Israel. He said things that others might consider controversial, but that’s what made it all the more powerful. He compared the silence around discussing Israel to the inability to speak freely about transgender issues. It was a gut-punch of truth and honesty.”

Further up in the conversation, a second audience member clarified that the person who yelled might not have been directing their aggression at Chappelle at all. The Redditor clarified that his friend was the person who yelled, but that he was yelling at fellow audience members.

“From what he told me the girls had been a distraction for quite some time. Apparently they left and at the point he yelled at them had returned and were being a problem again. The girls were loud and annoying to the point that he couldn’t hear what Dave was talking about , he said they were fighting. He was so fed up with them that he yelled at them to STFU,” they said.

According to the second person, Chappelle mistakenly thought that he was being yelled at. After discussing the matter with security, the man who yelled said he and his wife were allowed to remain at the show.

The Wall Street Journal reported, “An audience member’s command for the comedian to shut up drew an emotional response from Chappelle, who criticized the Israeli government for cutting off water and other essentials to Gaza and accused it of killing innocent people, according to the attendees.”

The accounts of two people who claimed to have been at the show are similar to those shared by the Journal’s reporter Sabrina Siddiqui, who did not attend the show herself.

She wrote, “Here’s how it went down, per attendees: Chappelle condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, but said it was wrong for students to lose job offers over their support for Palestine.”

Siddiqui added, “This prompted an audience member to shout, ‘Shut the f— up, Dave!’ That is what triggered more of a reaction from Chappelle, according to attendees. He said the Hamas attacks were not an excuse to cut off water, electricity etc. or commit war crimes.”

She continued, “Some people in the audience cheered and shouted ‘Free Palestine!’ while others yelled ‘What about Hamas?’ A couple attendees say Dave also said ‘Free Palestine,’ but others in the crowd say they did not hear him say that.”

The Wall Street Journal also reported that “Some in the crowd got up and left” the show. Like many comedians, Chappelle requires that phones are locked away during his performances.

A spokesperson for Chappelle told the Wall Street Journal that he “denies being in Boston last night.”

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