The story of Will Smith’s Oscar night slap of Chris Rock has often elicited sympathy towards Rock.
Publicly, over the past year, Rock has been widely portrayed as a victim who was helplessly humiliated by an out of order peer for a harmless bit.
But last Saturday, Rock emphatically flipped the script with his first lengthy public response on the incident.
Ever the perfectionist, the comedian played the long game, biding his time and ultimately creating a spectacle of the occasion with Netflix’s first-ever live entertainment special exactly a year after that infamous Oscars night.
Titled “Selective Outrage”, the theme of the special turns out to be far more nuanced than what those few clips circulating on social media right after the special premiered had suggested.
Admittedly, I was one of those who found those clips of him criticising Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, to be distasteful and classless.
For an all-time great comedian who’s garnered a well-earned reputation as being measured, controlled and intentional in his delivery, I found them a little unsettling.
“Nobody’s picking on this b****. She started this shit,” he said. Later, he added, “A lot of people go, ‘Chris, how come you didn’t do nothing back?’ Cause I’ve got parents. And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”
But once I started watching the entire special, eager to witness the full extent to which he’d unleashed on the couple, I quickly discovered that there was some method to the madness.
“I’m gonna try to do a show tonight without offending nobody, okay?” he started. “I’m gonna try my best. You know why? Because you never know who might get triggered… You know what people always say, they say, ‘words hurt’.
“That’s what they say. You gotta watch what you say cause words hurt. Anybody that says words hurt has never been punched in the face.”
He goes on to ridicule cancel culture and woke victim politics. While he duly expresses sympathy for actual victims, he also expresses derision for how society is constantly in a state of selective outrage.
The veteran comedian is at his best at times as he clinically makes his points by running through some thought-provoking examples.
At one point, he expresses contempt for how the general public is more than comfortable playing Michael Jackson’s music but draws the line when it comes to R. Kelly.
“Same crime, one of them just got better songs,” he quipped. False outrage and activism are recurring themes, throughout.
Rock also masterfully teases Smith’s routine that’s to follow later with some bits about Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z, which he concludes by clarifying that he isn’t actually dissing them because: “The last thing I need is another mad rapper.”
These bits draw wild applause from the crowd (who are evidently itching for Rock to delve even deeper) as he weaves his mercurial wand to ramp up the anticipation for the moment when he does unleash on the Smiths.
However, the most hilarious segment is reserved for Rock’s remarks on the Meghan Markle royal family saga.
Rock holds no bars as he ridicules Markel’s widely publicised claims of victimhood.
This routine also sees him add that it should have come as no surprise that the royal family, who he describes as pioneers of colonialism, were racist: “That’s the royal family. You didn’t Google these motherf******? They’re the original racists. They invented colonialism.”
On the point of her anger at the family’s inquiry as to how brown the baby was, Rock didn’t see what the big hoo-ha was: “That’s not racist, because even black people want to know how brown the baby (is) going to be.”
He wraps this routine up masterfully by advising that if you’re black and want to be accepted by your white in-laws, then you need to marry a Kardashian “because they accept everybody”.
He then goes on to compare Kris Jenner to a black grandma who “just wants to fix you up a plate”.
On Jenner, he also references how she welcomed Kanye West, Tristan Thompson and Caitlyn Jenner.
“She’s like ‘bipolar rapper, bring your ass here. Come in here, you genius bipolar motherf*****’. ‘Crackhead basketball player, bring your ass here. Your daddy got titties? Bring your ass here’.”
Then, in closing the show, Rock finally let loose with his thoughts on that infamous Oscars incident.
In reference to Pinkett-Smith’s entanglement revelation, Rock says of Smith, “Everybody in the world called him a b****, Everybody. Everybody. And who’s he hit? Me. A n**** he knows he could beat. That is some b****-a** sh**.”
While there’s a hint of revenge in his tone, and many found this routine to be mean-spirited, it isn’t for any of us to dictate how Rock should respond to how he was literally assaulted in front of the whole world.
If a few tough jokes are what he needs to blow off some steam, I think he should be afforded that.
His hurt and humiliation was palpable, and he took his chance to settle the score the way he saw fit.
And for his efforts, Rock is laughing all the way to the bank, too, thanks to a reported $40 million check. As they say, all’s fair in love and war.
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