Chris Rock during his Netflix Live Special ‘Selective Outrage’
Courtesy of Kirill Bichutsky/Netflix
It was the moment many have been waiting for nearly a year to hear Chris Rock finally meet Will Smith’s Oscar-night defeat of the comedian on the Academy stage with a slap that will live in shame.
Perhaps because Rock knew that much of the tuning-in audience was waiting for this exact moment, he saved it toward the end of his Saturday night set during Netflix’s much-hyped first live special, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage!
But when the moment finally came, Rock didn’t hold back — taking Smith down, dragging his wife Jada Pinkett Smith with him, and opening up about the couple’s marital woes (in which Pinkett Smith admitted a relationship with singer August Aslina when the couple her marriage addressed episode of Red Table Talk) in a glowing final moment.
“Will Smith exercises selective outrage,” Rock told the audience. “Outrage because everyone knows what the hell happened. Anyone who really knows knows I ain’t got nothing to do with this shit. I had no entanglements.”
He continued: “His wife fucked her son’s friend. OK, I wouldn’t normally talk about this shit, but for some reason these n—-s put this shit on the internet. I have no idea why two talented people would do something so despicable. What the hell? And we’ve all been betrayed. Everyone here has been scammed. None of us have ever been interviewed by the person who cheated on us on TV.”
“She hurt him a lot more than he hurt me. Everyone in the world called him a bitch. I tried to call the motherfucker, I tried to call this man and give him my condolences, he didn’t pick up for me.” He continued by listing all the people Smith said after that interview on Red Table Talk as Bitch”, including Charlamagne Tha God and The View. “Everyone called him a bitch, and who did he hit? Me – an – he knows he could hit. That sucks.”
While this isn’t the first time Rock has addressed Smith’s slap in the face — much of Saturday’s material was featured on his shows while he was touring the country last year — these were the first comments in front of a wide audience, as Rock led Netflix’s first foray into live programming. a global event with a pre and post show featuring guests Arsenio Hall, Amy Schumer, JB Smoove, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dana Carvey and more.
“I’m going to try and do a show tonight without offending anyone,” Rock said, kicking off his Baltimore stand-up special. “I’ll do my best because you never know who will be triggered.”
He added that while he doesn’t mind “awakening,” he’s not a fan of “selective outrage,” the kind of people who would listen to Michael Jackson but not R. Kelly: “Same crime — one of them just has better ones.” song.”
Among the issues Rock touched on were the Capitol Riots: “White men trying to overthrow the government they run?” Rock said. “They say, ‘Damn, we have to get her out of office.’ WHO? Us?”
He later elaborated on the idea that white men felt they were being ousted from power, and joked if commercials starring multiracial couples were part of their anger.
“There are no black couples either,” he said. “Every commercial has an interracial couple,” he added, noting that he recently saw a commercial in which a Japanese woman was married to a caterpillar.
“By the way, speaking of commercials, when did Snoop Dogg become Morgan Freeman?” Rock joked. “I saw a commercial the other day where Snoop was selling reverse mortgages.” But he made it a point to point out that he loves Snoop Dogg. “I don’t diss Snoop. The last thing I need is another crazy rapper,” he added to cheers from the crowd.
But of course, the rapper who was the night’s main target was Smith, although much of his anger was directed at Pinkett Smith. Rock recalled when Pinkett Smith called on blacks to boycott the Oscars amid the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in 2016; Rock hosted this year’s show.
“She started this shit. She said that I, a f***ing grown man, should quit his job because ‘my husband wasn’t nominated for the concussion,’ and then this na gives me a f***ing concussion.”
Towards the end of the special, Rock changed his tone a bit, saying, “I loved Will Smith. All my life I have loved Will Smith. I saw him opener for Run-DMC… He makes great movies. I’ve rooted for Will Smith my entire life,” Rock said. “And now I watch Emancipation just to see him cheered.”
Rock used the last minute of Selective Outrage to answer the question he’s been asked many times since the slap: Why didn’t you do anything back? “Because I have parents,” Rock said. “Because I grew up. And do you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”
The pre-show featured performances from other comics and Rock’s friends, including Schumer and Jerry Seinfeld. The Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng hosted the special, which also featured Hall, Deon Cole and Leslie Jones.
Chieng opened nightlife at Comedy Store in Los Angeles.
“I can’t stress how vibrant things are today,” the Daily Show correspondent said. “We’re live from two different locations simultaneously, Los Angeles and Baltimore. Why? For absolutely no reason. This is extremely expensive and difficult and irritating.”
The comedian also poked fun at how they do a live comedy show on a Saturday night, a concept that’s been around for decades, aka Saturday Night Live.
Chieng then introduced Hall, who recounted how Rock got him back into stand-up. Towards the end of his brief appearance at the Comedy Store, Hall said he hoped everyone would enjoy the night “because somewhere I know Will Smith won’t.”
“Trust me. We won’t know, but I’ll bet you Will Smith is beating up a friggin’ TV tonight,” he joked. “He’s gonna knock that motherfucker off the wall.”
Matthew McConaughey, Amy Schumer, Ali Wong, Woody Harrelson, Paul McCartney, Rosie Perez, Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Hart, Sarah Silverman, Ice-T, Adam Sandler and many others wished Rock the best of luck ahead of his live event.