A comedian furiously hit out at a heckler before grabbing his friend's phone to expose his text messages.
A comedian shutting down a heckler is always a satisfying moment, but Natalie Cuomo just took it to a whole new level - by exposing his private messages in front of a packed audience.
Cuomo was performing her final show of the weekend in Washington, D.C. when an audience member in the front row decided to fire back at one of her jokes.
In a now-viral TikTok clip posted on February 3, the comic is seen interacting with the crowd when the man in question took offense after she joked that he was in a relationship with his friend.
Rather than laughing it off, the heckler snapped, saying: "It's not my fault that you don't have material. I can roast you too, you can't roast all of us and get nothing."
Watch the moment below:At first, Cuomo kept her cool and called out his outburst by saying: "You're afraid because I called you gay as a joke?" But when the heckler doubled down and suggested he could take the mic, things quickly escalated.
"There's so many people coming together to be supportive and you’re putting negative," she said before getting in his face and yelling: "No, look me in the eyes! You’re putting negative f**ing energy out there!"*
"This is the last show of my f***ing weekend, look me in the f***ing eyes! It’s a sold-out show and you want to say mean s** to me? Don’t f**ing do that!” she added.
The audience was loving it, chanting Cuomo’s name as she drank her water. She then took it a step further, telling the man: "You can leave."
That should have been the end of it, but the comedian noticed that the heckler’s friend had been texting him during the show. She couldn’t resist taking a peek - and what she found was gold.
Cuomo grabbed the man's phone and read the messages out loud to the audience: "Lol what a f**ing clown. I did warn you I would get kicked out. Man, she is sensitive, especially for a comedian."
Naturally, she had the perfect response to his messages: sending a photo of herself flipping him off.
She later captioned the TikTok clip: "Right after I said how grateful I was for everyone being there and selling out the show, this little man in the front row decided to let his true colors shine. Always stand up for yourself!! And if you’re going to be rude, at least have the decency to LOOK ME IN THE EYES."
The video quickly blew up, but not everyone agreed with how Cuomo handled the situation. Some people criticized her reaction, with one user commenting: "A [comedian] who can't handle a heckler without shouting in their face is a bit sad."
Another said: "Comedians that can’t take a joke is actually so cringe," and a third commented: "How to deal with a heckler: lose your cool and start screaming at him."
But plenty of others were fully backing Cuomo. One fan wrote: "Feminine rage is my jam!! I'm obsessed," and a second remarked: "U screaming at him to look u in the eyes just changed my brain chemistry."