Some viewers of Chris Rock’s new comedy special felt he was a little too harsh with his verbal jabs against Will Smith.
Chris Rock returned to the spotlight on Saturday with the debut of his live comedy special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage on Netflix. The special came a year after the incident at the Academy Awards where Rock had been slapped on the stage by actor Will Smith, sparking one of Hollywood’s most discussed controversies in years. As expected, Rock had a lot to say about the situation in his new special, marking the first time he had addressed the fiasco in a public way.
Taking aim at Smith, Rock was not holding back, using his comedy to skewer the King Richard star. Rock spoke about the marital problems between Smith and wife Jada and even joked that he enjoyed watching Emancipation just to see Smith getting whipped. The jokes were fierce, and they even had some viewers on Twitter feeling that the comedian went too far with his verbal lambasting, regardless of whether he was physically attacke by Smith last year.
“Remember Chris Rock punched down on Jada over her alopecia condition,” tweets Reecie Colbert. “All the deflecting he is doing bringing up entanglements is gaslighting. He knows that the world hates a Black woman with sexual agency, so he has to make that the topic, not how he violated and humiliated her.”
Another tweet reads, “Chris Rock got slapped by Will and he handled it in stride but now he’s taking it way too far by using the joke as profit and clout for comedy Wills career is over Chris is profiting not to mention he made a Michael Jackson joke. He’s an idiot.”
As another tweeter puts it, “Honestly, Chris Rock should’ve been had the sh*t knocked out of him bc he always goes WAAAAAAYYYY too far.”
Did Chris Rock Go Too Far?
Clearly, some people were not happy with the special, but that doesn’t mean it bombed with viewers. There were others who found the special to be hilarious, and in particular, the barbs against Smith to be well-deserved. Some say that this is a matter of payback over getting slapped at the Oscars, arguing that physical violence is still worse than anything Rock could have said. Some fans are even saying that Rock didn’t take things far enough.
“People saying Chris Rock ‘doing too much’ and ‘going too far’…the man got slapped in the face on National tv…I think he can go as far as he damn well pleases,” as one fan says.
“The takes on here that Chris Rock went too far is just absurd,” says someone else. “Comedy comes at the expense of somebody or something. He got physically assaulted in front of the world for making a GI Jane joke. Unload on those toxic two full stop.”
You can stream Chris Rock: Selective Outrage on Netflix. You can see some more of the reactions people are having to the new special below.
