But in this case, the heckler’s boyfriend decided to escalate the tussle by whizzing a can of beer at Elias’ head. Like Chappelle’s incident, it could have been a harrowing moment. Since the guy had a lousy aim and missed, though, Elias turned the moment into a punchline, picking up the can and chugging the drink like a champ.
That moment of calm in crisis turned out great for Elias’ career, prompting shout-outs from Patton Oswalt and Jim Gaffigan and earning her a national debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! But geez, what if the can had been hurled a few inches to the left? A career jolt would have been replaced by a trip to the emergency room.
That’s what happened to multiple other comics this year. Sampson McCormick went back and forth with a female heckler in a Redding, California club, “just roasted her a little bit,” when a burly man rushed the stage and slugged the comic in the jaw. In England, comedian Simon Cain was out of commission for two months after he confronted a heckler who subsequently broke the comic’s leg. Curtis Shaw Flagg, president of Chicago’s Laugh Factory, told the New York Post that it keeps getting worse: “Not long ago, we had a patron stand up in the middle of a performance and say, ‘I will be outside waiting for you, I’m going to kill you.’”
Cain, for one, thinks incidents like the Will Smith/Chris Rock kerfuffle emboldened audience members to rush the stage if they hear jokes that offend. Understandably, many of Cain’s stand-up brethren are alarmed by such incidents, calling for tighter security and more civility.
We’re all for it. But let’s also pay attention to those comics who have decided to make a name for themselves by broadcasting their audience brawls. The latest craze in comedy social media is heckler confrontations, where caustic comics can earn points, views and followers by owning those obnoxious audience members. Heckler videos are now a “mega-popular genre on TikTok,” earning otherwise anonymous comedians millions of views.
Of course, all that “popularity” has a shadow side — the hecklers get internet famous as well. If they needed an incentive to act up at a comedy show, how about basking in the spotlight on everyone’s For You page tomorrow? The more outrageous the audience behavior, the better the chances of breaking through the clutter and going viral. A simple “you suck!” isn’t going to get it done. Do we really want to see what an attention-hungry fan will do next?
Let’s hope 2022 was the height of heckler confrontation, a weird confluence of toxic events combining celebrity-enabled bad behavior and online comics unintentionally fanning the flames. We’re making a New Year’s comedy resolution for a more peaceful 2023 — but we’ve got security guys packing at the door just in case.