Turns out, Chris Rock is still really pissed off at Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.
“His wife was flirting with his son’s friend … it hurt him more than it hurt me,” Rock said about Will Smith during Netflix’s live standup special, Selective Outrage, from Baltimore on Saturday night.
The final eight minutes or so of the special focused on Rock’s reaction after Smith slapped him onstage at last year’s Oscar ceremony, with a deluge of comic unloading expletives and bile, all of those of the actor protesting the attack. There was a response to the criticisms that he took. For admitting to his wife’s very public affair.
Rock said of Smith, “Everybody called that guy a b—- who’s physically more dominant than he is.” They called his wife a stalker… and who did she kill? Me! An n—- he knows he can beat [up].”
Rock’s fury focused on The Smiths
Jokes ensued, as Rock finally told his side of the story, accusing Smith of practicing “selective resentment” by getting mad at him instead of the wife who committed adultery.
In fact, the comedian got so fired up that he messed up a joke, saying that earlier Jada wanted him to quit hosting the Oscars in 2016 because Will was not nominated for Emancipation (the movie was actually I had a concussion, a lapse that fueled the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag).
“She said, ‘He should leave because Will didn’t get nominated,'” Rock said. “So then I make some jokes about it… It’s like that. She starts it; I finish it… No one’s picking up on this b—-. She does this s– — began.” Eventually, he pulled out the punchline: “She said a grown man should quit his job because [her husband] wasn’t nominated for concussion. And then it n—- gave me a shake.”
Rock also said that he was once a big fan of Smith, but Slap made him look at the actor’s films, such as his Civil War-era drama Emancipation, very differently. “Now I see salvation only in seeing him,” said the comic. “Rooted me for warts!”
Before Saturday night, it seemed like Smith had mostly climbed out of the public relations hole he dug for himself by slapping Rock, publicly apologizing several times while admitting the comic didn’t respond to his attempts to reach him. Gave. One reason why Smith may have been able to rebuild his image to some extent is that Rock was not speaking publicly about the incident – so the man who was slapped was not giving his perspective.
The Rock insisted that even though he was slapped live on international television by a much larger man, he was not the victim – unfortunately, there may be some shame in that designation while he was adding to that rant. Which he had given earlier in the night. Many people want to get attention by falsely claiming to be a victim.
“I’m not a victim, baby… You’ll never see me cry on Oprah or Gayle,” said the comic. “I took that hit like [champion boxer Manny] Pacquiao.”
He may not be crying, but The Rock’s anger over the incident seemed as fresh as if it happened only last week. “People [are asking me] ‘Does it hurt?'” Rock said incredulously. “It still hurts.”
And his final observation: He didn’t fight back against Smith because of a lesson from his parents: “Don’t fight in front of white people!”
Funny, but less than groundbreaking
It was a dramatic end to a standup special that felt less important than the hype often suggested. For an hour, Rock went on to go over a series of topics, some of which felt like they might come from a particular year earlier — including the Kardashians, O.J. Simpson, and Meghan Markle.
Some of the jokes felt a bit awkward—like complaining about selective outrage by people dancing to Michael Jackson’s songs—but R. Kelly, who – unlike Jackson – is alive and was actually convicted in court of sex crimes.
Parts of the special were calibrated to bend conservatively liberal sensibilities, with Rock insisting that “anyone who says ‘words hurt’ has never been punched in the face.” and jokes about how the “wock trap” works; If “someone wants your job, they’re waiting for you to say something dumb—.”
On abortion: “Women should have the right to kill a child up to the age of four.” On being a divorced single guy dating younger women: “I didn’t get rich and stay in shape enough to talk to Anita Baker. I’m trying to f— Doja Cat.” On why the power of women’s beauty gives them dominance over men: “Beyoncé is so good, that even if she worked at Burger King, she could marry Jay-Z. Now if only Jay-Z worked at Burger King Is …”
Rock chased the stage with the energy and practice of a longtime standup comedy legend — even admitting that he got kicked out of a high school for teaching his own daughter a lesson, claiming Fearing that he, his ex-wife, and his lawyer were probably finding out that he asked the school to expel him after watching the Netflix special.
Comedy of a man who has been rich and famous for a while
Because Rock is a comedy pro, much of the special was amusing and some of it was touching, including her reflection on being a mother who grew up in isolation and is now unable to visit her granddaughter attending culinary school in France. is capable. I also liked his comment that the January 6 riots were “white people trying to overthrow the government…that they were (already) on the run.”
But some of it also felt like the kind of comedy you might expect from a man who’s been rich and famous for so long, his view of the world clouded by the bubble of privilege in which he lives. (For example, Rock’s version of the tired “my pronouns are” joke is that he self-identifies as poor despite his wealth, and his pronouns are “broken.”)
It didn’t help that Netflix hyped the show with both pre- and post-concert specials, which felt a bit rushed. Hosted by Ronnie Chiang, David Spade and Dana Carvey, the special featured Bono (singing Jailhouse Rock before Rock’s show, as anyone does), Rosie Perez, Matthew McConaughey, Arsenio Hall, Leslie Jones, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar There were many appearances by celebrities. even more.
He offered such a delightfully engrossed performance, The Rock himself could squirm, if he was forced to sit through it.
And for the comedy fan who still remembers when The Rock’s groundbreaking standup special for HBO instantly redefined his career and the world of comedy, Saturday night’s special is about to make its mark. Rahe was sad proof of the distance between a young comic and one. Seasoned pro who knows how to work a room, even if he doesn’t have much to say.