In yesterday’s post, I was incorrect when I wrote that Chris Rock “did stand-up in front of a mostly white audience, and the positive response for the special has mostly come from the conservative, right-wing media.” The actual audience in the Baltimore theater – where Chris Rock filmed his Netflix special – was mostly Black. The audience for the Netflix special was mostly white. The positive reactions for the special mostly came from white people. It’s also worth noting that Jada Pinkett Smith is from Baltimore, and that Chris never said Jada’s name in his routine, but he did call Jada AND Will Smith a “bitch” several times. Rock also did a big segment on how the Duchess of Sussex was wrong to go on Oprah and claim that the Windsors are racist because…in Rock’s words, everyone knows that the Windsors have always been racist. A lot of people were wildly offended by Rock’s doubling-down on attacking Black women, but according to Rock’s people, he’s very pleased with the reaction:
Chris Rock is basking in the wake of his live comedy show. Two days after the comedian, 58, skewered Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith during Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, an industry source tells PEOPLE that he “is riding high from the Netflix special.”
“He said what he needed to say and doesn’t give a s— about the reaction either way. He isn’t worried,” the insider adds. A year after the infamous incident at the 94th Academy Awards where Will, 54, struck Rock in the face onstage after the latter made a joke about Jada, 51, Rock addressed the assault in his live special on Saturday night, asserting he “is not a victim.”
Many of Rock’s fans and friends have come to his defense amid some online backlash over the jokes. The source tells PEOPLE that “people have been waiting for [Rock’s] reaction for a year,” adding, “For the most part, I think it was well received. People don’t expect sugarcoating from Chris Rock.”
Personally, after we watched Will Smith publicly eat sh-t for months and really use that time to reflect and figure out why he did what he did, I kind of hoped that Rock would do something similar in a smaller way – like, perhaps acknowledge that he gets off on attacking Black women. Perhaps reflect on the ways he needs to change to make funnier, more socially relevant comedy. It could have been the moment when Will Smith slapped some sense into him. Instead, Rock seems bitter, nasty and hellbent on degrading Black people even more. Meanwhile, Will Smith is still trying to make amends:
Will Smith is still intent on repairing his relationship with Chris Rock, a source tells PEOPLE. A year after the infamous incident at the 94th Academy Awards where Smith struck Rock onstage, Rock addressed the assault in his live Netflix comedy special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage on Saturday, asserting he “is not a victim.”
A source tells PEOPLE that Smith, 54, has “felt terrible for so long” about smacking Rock at the Oscars. “He’s tried unsuccessfully to make amends in the best way he could with Chris,” adds the source. “But beyond that, family is important to him and [Smith] leaned on them” in the aftermath of the incident, the source says. “It all has helped him look inside and mature. He is better but still remorseful.”
“Will listened to those who tried to help him and feels that he has become a better person,” the source continues.
I hope he has matured but I also hope he simply moves on. At this point, he doesn’t owe Chris Rock anything. Will doesn’t owe the Academy anything either – they lied about him, overreacted and treated the slap like it was the worst thing that ever happened, like they didn’t give Roman Polanski a f–king Oscar.
Will Smith slaps you in front of 16 million people, and after a year of hyping up your comedy special, all you can come up with is calling him a bitch over and over…
Will Smith – 2
Chris Rock – 0 pic.twitter.com/JPkI5uWkgb— chris rodgers. (@cxrodge) March 5, 2023
Photos courtesy of Kirill Bichutsky/Netflix, Avalon Red, Instar and YouTube.
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- Tyler Perry, and Oscar® nominees Will Smith and Denzel Washington during the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022.,Image: 673515395, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Avalon Licensing Ltd. do not claim any Copyright of the attached image WORLD RIGHTS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Oscar® nominee Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith during the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022.,Image: 673515422, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Avalon Licensing Ltd. do not claim any Copyright of the attached image WORLD RIGHTS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
Lol Rock’s entire personality is caring about people’s reactions.
See, unlike Chris’s comedy special, this comment is funny because it’s TRUE.
Pathetic man-baby.
@GoldenMom where is Will Smith when we need him?😁
Isn’t that the truth? Slap some decency into this incel misogynist. I’ll see myself out…
Will Smith !? We need to get Liam Neeson on Chris Rock or better yet Alec Baldwin
I didn’t know the show filmed a predominantly white audience. This was targeting for a white audience. Sounds like the black audience members were used as seat fillers.
It sounds crazy. So was the white audience watching a video? I wonder if it was because the black audience didn’t find his ish very funny.
That Twitter comment is everything, lol. Well Chris, you and your crotchety old man energy can take your $40 mil and leave now. We’re done.
So he’s basking is he? Gross.
He said he wasn’t going to talk about it until he got paid. Netflix paid him and the resulting set was pitiful. He hasn’t learned or grown or reflected in the last year and his “hot take” is hella late and outdated.
Dave Chappelle, JK Rowling, Chris Rock, etc, same playbook.
It’s kind of reminding me of that old meme of the crying troll with a grinning mask tied on, lol.
I was gonna say something similar. He and Dave are two rotten peas in a worm-filled pod. CR is gonna get a Grammy for best comedy album (or whatever).
Oh yeah, Rock was pissed that the big dogs didn’t come to his defense. The picture with Denzel and Tyler is pretty telling. All the stories about all the Black talent after it happened going over to Will and Jada checking on them was also pretty telling. The only smart thing Chris did was not have the police called and press charges.
It’s almost like that video of his telling white people it’s okay to call him and use the N word did not go over well.
This is just bitterness and jealously. Well, at least he got Dave Chapelle in the deal. 😐
Dave Chapelle was among a group of supporters at Will Smith’s house for a private viewing of ‘Emancipation’…
And….????
Looking back on all of this, it’s all starting to make more sense that the heavyweight black artists in the room flocked to Will Smith’s side. The more I think about this, the more I end up applauding what Will did. If you think about Will’s reaction being the culmination of thirty years of Chris Rock making Jada the butt of his jokes, Will’s reaction begins to make more and more sense. And the Tylers and Denzels in that room knew about that history. I just had a debate with a (male) friend of mine about this. I submit that Will Smith went easy on Chris. He gave the Hollywood performative bitch-slap instead of the ‘let’s take this outside and handle it like men’ treatment. Chris himself stated that Will is significantly larger than he is. Will could have hurt him, badly, with one real punch. But he took it easy on Chris.
But Chris told us. He’s still hurt. Yeah, his feelings are still hurt that Jada rejected him all those years ago and he hasn’t been able to move forward since…
Chris needs to get therapy, and stop taking out his insecurities on black women. (Who knows, maybe he hit on Meghan at some point and was rejected by her too. He and Piers Morgan could start a club.) Just a thought.
Will Smith slapped the guy after CR had been dissing and harassing his wife for YEARS. He didn’t stab him, shoot him, or strangle him. Obviously, he wasn’t trying to kill him. It would have been better if it never came to this at all. But CR has never taken responsibility for his continual verbal abuse of Jada Pinkett Smith, much less apologized. Instead, he goes right on with his unfunny rants. I never got the outrage last year and still don’t know. And, yes, the Motion Picture Academy has presided over much worse.
Chris Rock is pathetic and weak. I get that things happened to him growing up that obviously broke his psyche. He responded by becoming bitter and angry, and unfortunately, was rewarded handsomely for it. It’s human to double down on behavior that’s positively rewarded. He was horribly bullied and abused for his Blackness, then taught that if he attacked and degraded other people, he would be handsomely rewarded. So he dances for racists and they love it, because he is saying the things to Black people, especially women, that the racists wish they could say aloud. I don’t think there’s any hope for him. Some people are just too small to grow.
Excellent response, Sue!
This. All this.
I was utterly disgusted when people came for Will. Saying it “triggered” them and reminded them of their abusive exes or their abusive parents etc. I was also raised in an abusive home. When I saw Will slap Chris I was in shock but I also was glad he did it because it was the result of years of being classy and rising above while Chris continued to attack Jada openly. And what happened? Chris was brazen and dumb enough to do it publicly TO THEIR FACES. What did he think would happen? If anyone is abusive it is CR for thinking he could say and do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. Eventually a kicked dog bites and that is what happened. What Will did was not indicative of an abusive or even an immature person – it was him finally having had enough. He defended his wife. He feels bad about it because he IS a good person who realizes that he did stoop to CR’s level and that can be a nasty feeling to sit with. But I would not regret having done that and if my husband had done it in my defense I would’ve been grateful for it. Jada has remained so graceful throughout it all. I know the Smiths can be messy but at least they own it.
He’s dissolving further and further into hateful incel behavior. It’s a matter of time before he’s a regular on Fox shows and even talking about how he loves Trump. Pathetic.
Yep. He’s going down the same pry as Louis CK. Rather than have thoughtful insights into what they did wrong and why, they just suck up to angry white people. So gross. And nothing tells someone you care more than telling them you don’t care.
This whole People article is about how much Chris he cares about what people think and are saying.
Will Smith has economic reasons to be seen as reconciliatory towards Rock, he is doing well as a result of apologizing.
In the meanwhile, he has kept his real feelings to himself as to how he is with what happened a year ago.
He has continued to defend his wife.
A telling clue. Then again it is no one’s business.
The slap has been a windfall for Rock, he has a new audience that’s appreciative of his brand of humour.
I hope that they appreciate that this is not open season on black women.
This is no longer about Jada and Will..
It is not a black issue, either….
Culture wars are not beneficial for black people…
It is about character, or the lack thereof..
The impression I have is that he has a problem with women.
After all the drama around “The Slap,” he’s still going after Jada? Tacky. Bad look. HE is definitely not a victim here at this point.
If you need a rep or a “source” to tell everyone how very much you don’t care, you care.
The man seems hateful.
Of course he doesn’t care well know Chris doesn’t care. I feel sorry for his daughters. What must they think of him disrespecting black women any women really. How do you think that makes them feel Daddy Chris?
And their mother. Decades ago, I remember listening to his routines and thinking, “Wow, he really despises his wife.” It was super clear to me then.
I just found the whole thing boring. Meghan is straight up pop culture. Chris’ jokes weren’t even fun and didn’t make sense. So the royals are racist but she can’t say it ? Or was it that she shouldn’t speak out against racism or that he is ok with racists? Nothing landed right. It just made me cringe because I realized that as I was trying to find the joke that he was BOMBING on stage. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the laughs were dubbed over. Like even the “in-law” bit where the f*ck was he going with it ? So white woman have a harder time ? Black people are more racists ? Oh wait wait I think I got it, he gets to yell at her to stop being a victim for attention on Oprah while he gets to be a victim on Nexflix. This didn’t help his comedy get better at all and now I see how dated his jokes are and how not edgy he is. He likes reactions, I was waiting for him to throw in “see I’m down with you young people” lol sad.
If he wasn’t “playing victim” he would have had the b*lls to talk about this a long time ago and do something about it for society like man he could have gotten so much amazing press. Instead he hyped it up for this special to berate and also kinda kiss ass to certain people for clout. “Cheer for me I said Beyonce, Serena and my kid studies culinary art in PARRRRRIS FRANCE!!!!
Great comment. 💯 agree. None of it landed, none of it was new, insightful, or even remotely funny. He looks like he aged a decade in this past year, like he’s been marinating in bitterness, self-pity, and alcohol.
Chris is a bully. And like all bullies , when the person or people he is bullying finally stand up for themselves and say no more, he runs away with his tail between his legs . What a sad little old man .
Chris Rocks knows there’s money in pandering to the right wing. He’s seen how well that’s worked out for Dave Chappelle.
Meghan and Jada are loathed by the right. He knew what he was doing.
Will should stop trying to make amends. He has made several attempts to apologize and Chris has made it clear that he prefers to cling to bitterness and hate. He doesn’t need to be friends with Will and Jada but it would be great if he could at least get the help he needs to get over his clear resentment of Black women. He made a point of saying that he didn’t fight back because he was raised better by his parents, but I’m sure his mother also didn’t raise him to call a woman a bitch. His entire routine was full of nonsensical contradictions and his jokes were all really weak…
Chris Rock, try being funny!
Comedy is meant to be funny, not an hour of your complaining and bitching.
So many comedians are burnt out on material, just keep making money by doing specials, living off their reps. 10-15 minutes of funny in a 60 minute special ain’t much.
I love it and thought he was funny.