Chris Rock slaps back at Will Smith and shades Jada Pinkett Smith in Selective Outrage
Baltimore, Maryland - Comedian Chris Rock officially slapped back at Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith during his new Netflix special Selective Outrage.
The comedian took the stage for what was Netflix's first ever livestreamed event. It included a preshow hosted by Ronny Chang of The Daily Show and an aftershow with a handful of popular comedians and stars sharing their thoughts on Rock's set.
But if the big event proved anything, it's that Rock is back with a vengeance and better than ever.
His set was reminiscent of his classic specials, such as Bigger and Blacker from 1999 and Kill The Messenger from 2008, as he touched on a wide range of social and political issues, starting with "wokeness."
"I have no problem with the wokeness," Rock explained. "I have no problem with it at all. I'm all for social justice. I'm all for marginalized people getting their rights."
"The thing I have a problem with is the selective outrage," he continued. "One person does something, they get canceled. Somebody else does the exact same thing, nothing." Rock went on to talk about the state of the nation, which he said "is in horrible shape right now."
"We got it worse than Ukraine," he joked. "Yeah, I said it. You know why? Because Ukraine is united and America is clearly divided. If the Russians came here right now, half the country would say, 'Let's hear them out.' We're in a bad place right now."
No subject was safe or considered too taboo. He even dug into Meghan Markle's claims that she experienced racism from the royal family after marrying Prince Harry, arguing that the royals invented colonialism.
"It's the royal family," he said. "You didn't Google these motherf**kers? What the f**k is she talking about she didn’t know?!"
Of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without Chris Rock finally publically touching on what everyone really wanted to hear about: the Oscars slap.
Chris Rock addresses the Oscars slap
Rock meticulously waited until the last 10 minutes of his set to finally address the elephant in the room: that time Will Smith walked on stage at the 2022 Oscars and slapped Rock on live television for cracking a joke about Smith's wife Jada.
He shamelessly went all in on the couple, and ultimately demonstrated why it's a bad idea to ever mess with a comedian.
Rock brought everything back to the title of the special, accusing Smith of practicing what he calls "selective outrage." He pointed out that everybody called Smith a b***h before the slap for his marital woes, yet Smith decided to smack him.
"Everybody knows what the f**k happened," he said. "Everybody that really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that s**t. I didn't have any 'entanglements."
The comic brought up how Jada allegedly had an affair with rapper August Alsina, who was a friend of her and Will's son Jaden.
"I normally would not talk about this shit, but for some reason, these n***as put that s**t on the internet," Rock said. "I have no idea why two talented people would do something that low-down."
Chris Rock says he will never play the victim
Rock touched on a lot of the speculation surrounding what led to the slap, but insists it had nothing to do with him while pointing out that Smith is "significantly bigger" than him.
"We all been cheated on. Everybody have been cheated on," he added. "None of us have ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us on television. She hurt him way more than he hurt me."
Above all, Rock says he does not and will never play the victim: "You all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith," he joked, adding, "But I'm not a victim, baby. You'll never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying … I took that hit like Pacquiao motherf**ker!"
Selective Outrage is currently streaming on Netflix.
Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / NurPhoto & Cover-Images