Comedian from Lexington goes viral after chugging drink thrown onto stage by a heckler

A comedian from Lexington has gone viral for drinking a hard seltzer that was thrown at her by a heckler while she was on stage during a show in New Jersey.

Stand-up comedian Ariel Elias posted a clip of the incident on Twitter, which resulted from an exchange between her and someone in the audience who questioned her over who she voted for in the 2020 election. The video begins with a person in the crowd asking Elias if she voted for former President Donald Trump.

Elias didn’t answer directly but said, “Guys, everybody vote for whoever you want to vote. I don’t care who you vote for, I’m just happy we’re all here together.”

The heckler responded by saying, “So you voted for Biden,” which Elias confirmed. Elias then questioned why it mattered who she voted for.

“I could just tell by your jokes that you voted for Biden,” the heckler said.

“I can tell by the fact that you’re still talking when nobody wants you to that you voted for Trump,” Elias shot back.

The crowd cheered Elias on as the two exchanged words. At one point Elias told the crowd to “make some noise” if they wanted the heckler to be quiet, at which point the crowd cheered again.

Elias had been doing a question-and-answer segment with her audience when the exchange started, according to the video she shared. She tried to continue the segment, at which point someone threw a hard seltzer at her. It narrowly missed her, instead smashing into the wall behind her.

Elias appeared shocked at first but picked up the beverage and drank the rest of it, which caused the crowd to cheer for her again.

The clip has generated over 5 million views on Twitter. Elias has since jokingly tweeted about the incident, once saying, “I’d really appreciate it if anyone could please just let my teachers know that chugging a beer has in fact been great for my career.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, the heckler’s husband is the one who allegedly threw the beverage. The owner of the comedy club told Entertainment Weekly he ran out of the club after throwing the drink, but a police report was filed and authorities were able to determine who the suspect was.

According to her website, Elias is from Kentucky but lives in New York City. She has been described as “a sly young comic from Kentucky” by the New York Times.

Several high-profile comedians have since come out in support of the way Elias handled the situation, including Patton Oswalt, Jim Gaffigan and Judd Apatow. George Takei called Elias a hero.

“Umm...SO MANY things to say about this but the big take away is that @ariel_Comedy is super funny and total class,” Gaffigan said in his tweet.