Chris Rock during his live Netflix special, “Selective Outrage”
Courtesy of Kirill Bichutsky/Netflix
It was the moment many had been waiting for nearly a year _ a chance to hear how Chris Rock would finally approach Will Smith’s Oscar party against the comedian on the Academy stage with a slap that will live on in the infamy.
Perhaps because Rock knew that much of the tuning in audience was just waiting for this moment, he recorded it near the end of his set on Saturday night during Netflix’s highly publicized first live special. . Chris Rock: Selective Outrage!
But when the time finally came, Rock didn’t hold back — taking down Smith, dragging his wife Jada Pinkett Smith and targeting the couple’s marital issues (in which Pinkett Smith admitted to a relationship with singer August Aslina as the couple was talking about their marriage on an episode of Red table discussion) in a searing closing moment.
“Will Smith practices selective outrage,” Rock told the audience. “Indignation because everyone knows what happened. Anyone who really knows knows I had nothing to do with this shit. I had no tangles.
He continued: “His wife was fucking her son’s friend. OK, now, normally I wouldn’t talk about this shit, but for some reason these n—-s put this shit on the internet. I don’t know why two talented people would do something so low. What is this ? And we have all been deceived. Everyone here has been deceived. None of us have ever been interviewed by the person who cheated on us on TV.
“She hurt him more than he hurt me. Everyone in the world called him a bitch. I tried to call that motherfucker, I tried to call that man and give him my condolences, he didn’t pick up for me. He went on to list all of the people who called Smith a “bitch” after that interview on Red table conference, including Charlamagne Tha Dieu and View. “Everyone called him a bitch, and who did he hit?” Me – a – a he knows he could beat. It’s shit shit.
While this isn’t the first time Rock has addressed Smith’s slap _ much of Saturday’s material was featured on his shows as he toured the country for the past year _ they were the first comments to a large audiences as Rock was Netflix’s first foray into live programming, a global event that included a pre-show and post-show with guests including Arsenio Hall, Amy Schumer, JB Smoove, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dana Carvey and others.
“I’m going to try to put on a show tonight without offending anyone,” Rock said, kicking off his Baltimore stand-up special. “I’m going to do my best because you never know who’s going to be triggered.”
He added that he doesn’t mind being ‘woke’, but he’s not a fan of ‘selective outrage’, the kind of people who will listen to Michael Jackson but not R. Kelly: ‘same crime – one of them just got better songs.”
Among the topics Rock discussed were the Capitol Riots: “White men trying to overthrow the government they lead? said Rock. “They’re like, ‘Damn, we have to get them out of the office.’ WHO? We?”
He later brought up the idea that white men felt disempowered and joked about whether ads featuring interracial couples were part of their anger.
“There are no black couples either,” he said. “Every ad has a mixed-race couple,” adding that he had seen an ad the other day where 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 an ad the other day where Snoop was selling reverse mortgages.” But he made it a point to note that he loves Snoop Dogg. “I’m not dissing 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 main target of the evening was Smith, even though much of his anger was directed at Pinkett Smith. Rock recalled when Pinkett Smith called on black people to boycott the Oscars amid the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in 2016; Rock went on to host that year’s show.
“She started this shit. She said I, a fucking adult, should quit her job because ‘My husband wasn’t nominated for Concussion,‘ and then this n—-a gives me a fucking concussion.
Towards the end of the special, Rock changed his tune a bit, saying, “I loved Will Smith. All my life, I’ve loved Will Smith. I saw him open for Run-DMC… He makes great movies. I’ve rooted for Will Smith my whole life,” Rock said. “And now I look Emancipation just to see him get booed.
Rock used the last minute of Selective outrage to answer the question he often asked himself since the Slap: Why didn’t you do anything in return? “Because I have parents,” Rock said. “Because I was brought up. And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.
The pre-show featured appearances from other comics and friends of Rock, including Schumer and Jerry Seinfeld. The daily showRonny Chieng of ‘s hosted the special, with Hall, Deon Cole and Leslie Jones also appearing.
Chieng kicked off the party live at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles.
“I can’t stress how much live things are today, The daily show said the correspondent. “We are live from two different locations simultaneously, Los Angeles and Baltimore. For what? For absolutely no reason. It is extremely expensive, 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 explained how Rock brought him back to stand-up. Toward the end of his brief set at the Comedy Store, Hall said he hoped everyone would enjoy the night “because I know Will Smith won’t.”
“Trust me. We won’t find out, but I bet Will Smith will slap the 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 more wished Rock luck ahead of his live event.