For the first time, Chris Rock addressed being slapped by Will Smith during the live broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards ceremony in his live Netflix special, Selective Outrage, at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre.
The 58-year old comedian wasted no time diving into the subject matter in which he kept silent for over a year. In his live special, he talked about railing against woke culture and modern sensitivities, accusing hypocrites of "typing out woke-ass tweets on a phone made by child slaves."
Rock said: "If everybody claims to be a victim, when the real victims need help, ain't nobody gonna be there to help them. Right now, we live in a world where the emergency room is filled with motherf***ers with paper cuts."
The comedian made several off-hand references to the Oscars incident, proclaiming: "Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face."
But it wasn't until the special's end that Rock dove fully into the unfortunate Oscars incident: "Everybody f**kin' knows. Yes, it happened, like a year ago, I got smacked at the f**king Oscars by this motherf**ker. People are like, 'Did it hurt? It still hurts! I've got 'Summertime' ringing in my ears,"
However, Rock insisted that he's not a victim: "You will never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying. Never gonna happen. I took that hit like Pacquiao, motherf**ker."
Rock also poked fun at the size difference between the two men before getting more personal, speculating that Smith's attack was about him "practicing selective outrage."
"Everybody knows that had nothing to do with me. I didn't have any entanglements," Rock said as he was referring to the cheating rumors that bubbled up between Smith and wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith in June 2020.
Rock continued: "His wife was f**king her son's friend. Now, I normally would not talk about this shit, But for some reason, these n***as put that shit on the internet. I have no idea why two people that talented would do something that low-down. We've all been cheated on, none of us have ever been interviewed by the person who cheated on us. Why the f**k would you do that shit? She hurt him way more than I did... Everybody called him a bitch, and who's he hit? Me!"
Rock closed his set by referring back to an earlier Oscars dispute between himself and the couple, recalling how Pinkett-Smith said Rock shouldn't host the Oscars because Smith wasn't nominated for his role in Concussion, amid the "#OscarsSoWhite" backlash in 2016.
"Nobody's picking on this bitch. She started this shit... And then this n***a gives me a concussion! I love Will Smith… he makes great movies. I rooted for Will Smith my whole life. And now, I watched Emancipation just so I could watch him get whooped."
As for why he didn't fight back, Rock said: "Because I got parents! Because I was raised! And you know what my parents taught me? Don't fight in front of white people!"
After the comedy special, a source from Entertainment Tonight said: "Chris had been very focused on this comedy special for the past year and his hard work paid off and now he can relax. He said everything he wanted to say. It was funny, self-deprecating, and thought-provoking. Now, Chris is ready to move on."
The pre-show for Rock's special was hosted by The Daily Show's Ronny Chieng and featured plenty of his famous friends, like David Spade, Dana Carvey, JB Smoove, Arsenio Hall, Leslie Jones, and more.
This was Netflix’s first-ever live, global streaming event, with Rock advertising the show as "no pre-records, no edits" in a promotional ad. "It's going to be global in 190 countries all at once."
Rock recently performed in Baltimore at Hippodrome during his Ego Death World Tour last month.
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