Chris Rock

[Ginger]

The special overall was ok, not fantastic. People are too fragile these days, etc. Tired outlook and he didn't do anything new with it.

The story I probably remember best is that his daughter, while in high school, intentionally ditched a school trip abroad to get drunk with her friends, and all of them were facing expulsion. Being rich private-schoolers, his daughter (and his ex-wife and the other parents) assumed that their lawyers would prevent anyone from being expelled, and his daughter was pretty cocky about it. So Chris went to the principal behind his ex-wife/lawyer's back and told him to expel the kids, which the principal did. And he said it humbled his daughter, made her a better person, and got her on the right path. Chris claimed that his ex-wife and daughter knew nothing about it, and would be finding out for the first time by watching the special.

Mar 18, 2005 22:24:46 GMT -4 pathtaken said:

I think he called Jada the B word or maybe it was Will.

Probably both, but definitely Will more than Jada. That was one of the jokes, what a bitch Will was for being interviewed by Jada on TV about being cheated on by her.

I was waiting for Chris to have some broader cultural take on the slapping incident, but it was really just that he's still upset about it, and this was personally settling the score with Will and Jada.

His final line that is being quoted a lot is that he didn't hit back because his parents taught him that "you don't fight in front of white people". It's more poignant than it sounds out of context, because he'd explained that he had been a fan of Will for a long time (gone to all of his early concerts) and had a personal back and forth, or connection, with him for years (not necessarily that they were friends). And I got the sense that his hurt stemmed from this being a public confrontation/humiliation over something that should have been handled privately.

[royalwave]

I agree with Ginger's take. The special was so-so. Doesn't help that I read a few articles about it prior to watching, which pretty much summed up all the best jokes.

Chris had a beef with Jada going back to the Oscars ceremony he hosted that she was trying to get him to boycott due to lack of diverse nominees (or perhaps specifically because Will was not nominated for Concussion that year). The one thing I learned was that you DO NOT try to take a high profile job like that away from Chris Rock. He will never forget it. He probably didn't really have any issues with Will prior to the slap--seems like he was a pretty big fan. But he does NOT like Jada.

Not sure what issues people have with him bringing up Meghan Markle, but he could have gone a lot harder on her in my opinion. The whole gist of it pretty much boiled down to: how could you not know you were marrying into a racist family when that family is the British royal family? And also...questioning what the baby's skin color will be isn't racist, but pretty much universal. He said that black people also want to know, in a mixed race couple, what color the baby will be. He also mentioned you will never see him crying on Oprah or Gayle because he's not a victim (though this story was not necessarily aimed directly at Meghan but was part of his broader theme of selective outrage/victim culture.

Anyway, not a lot of big laugh out loud moments.

[Ladybug]

I haven't watched it, but the clips and summaries have me thinking he's entering his "old man yelling at cloud" stage. The whole "people are too sensitive nowadays!" and "everyone is offended at everything!" is a reaction I hear a lot from my generation (X) and older. Maybe it's true to some extent, but does it warrant an entire comedy special? His line about "the emergency room is full of people with paper cuts" is probably something I will pull out when I'm older and grumpier, LOL.

I do think it's weird that Will and Jada unpacked their marital problems, which included her "entanglement" with another man, on her talk show. Rock was basically saying that Will Smith is p***y w*****d and it was emasculating for him to do that. So Rock further humiliates him in the show. Any comedy that is that personal just comes off as mean.

I haven't followed this too closely over the last year, but I think Will Smith reached out in good faith and said if Chris wanted to talk privately he would apologize personally to him. But of course Chris would rather use the incident for comedy material and to settle a score. WS was wrong for the slap, but it seemed like he tried to reconcile w/CR in an adult way, and Rock went the middle school playground route.

[Ginger]

Feb 10, 2006 17:47:02 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

I haven't followed this too closely over the last year, but I think Will Smith reached out in good faith and said if Chris wanted to talk privately he would apologize personally to him. But of course Chris would rather use the incident for comedy material and to settle a score. WS was wrong for the slap, but it seemed like he tried to reconcile w/CR in an adult way, and Rock went the middle school playground route.

One of the problems watching this show for me was that it was a livestream, and although I wasn't watching it live, the Netflix app was not allowing me to rewind. Attempting to rewind crashed the whole thing. So there were things I wanted to go back and listen to again that I couldn't.

But I believe Chris said that he reached out to Will when Will was being publicly mocked for the August Alsina/Red Table Talk interview, I guess to extend his support. And Will ignored his calls. But then punched him in front of millions of people. And Chris's point was that he's had a relationship with Will in some form or another for a long, long time, and Will wasn't willing to settle whatever beef there was directly. He is now? Well, maybe fuck that is a justified response.

I'm not giving to give credit to Will for being the magnanimous one in this situation. The aggressor doesn't really get to be the person who dictates to the victim the appropriate way to reconcile. Settling the score via a comedy special is definitely not the choice to be the bigger person, take the high road, etc. But there is a certain honesty to it. Chris obviously has not forgiven Will, and I don't think he's required to.

[Ladybug]

Mar 13, 2005 12:45:42 GMT -4 Ginger said:

But I believe Chris said that he reached out to Will when Will was being publicly mocked for the August Alsina/Red Table Talk interview, I guess to extend his support. And Will ignored his calls. But then punched him in front of millions of people. And Chris's point was that he's had a relationship with Will in some form or another for a long, long time, and Will wasn't willing to settle whatever beef there was directly. He is now? Well, maybe fuck that is a justified response.

That's a good point and thanks for the additional context.

[prisma]

Mar 6, 2023 14:32:53 GMT -4 Ginger said:

I'm not giving to give credit to Will for being the magnanimous one in this situation. The aggressor doesn't really get to be the person who dictates to the victim the appropriate way to reconcile. Settling the score via a comedy special is definitely not the choice to be the bigger person, take the high road, etc. But there is a certain honesty to it. Chris obviously has not forgiven Will, and I don't think he's required to.

I agree with this. Right after it happened, Marc Maron pointed out that tons of people rushed over to comfort Will and no one rushed to make sure Chris was ok. He said he'd run into Chris not long afterward at a stand-up club in LA and that Chris was still processing it. And that's what stand-up comics do--they process stuff through their work on stage. It may have not resulted in Chris looking like the bigger person but that is his right. I do have sympathy for the immense amount of pressure that Will Smith may have been under to be able to achieve his status but I still question whether his reaching out to Chris was a genuinely display of contrition or part of the groundwork to restore his reputation and ease his conscience.

[dragonflie]

To be honest I think Smith should have been arrested/charged with assault.

Someone put it to me this way: they were at their place of work. If I walked up to a co-worker and punched them in the face after they said something I didn't like I would be: arrested, fired, and in all likelihood blacklisted from my industry. I am still surprised at how light Smith got off for his assault. I have NO sympathy for him- regarding his actions in this case. Had he perhaps been struggling with other demons, sure. Had he felt pressure, ok. And... ?

I think Chris Rock has been more than kind, in the face of being assaulted by Smith and seeing Smith get little to no actual real blow back for it.

Also though- I watched Rock's special and I was not impressed. I didn't really laugh at all, and he does come across as bitter and angry as a person... it just really wasn't that funny. Oh- and he kept repeating himself. He would repeat the same line 3-4 times in a row over and over. It got annoying.

[Ginger]

I guess they livestreamed the special so that the Will Smith material everyone was waiting for wouldn't be misquoted in the media before people actually got to see the show. Without the benefit of multiple takes and editing (I think specials usually get filmed multiple times on different nights), the special might have been a little more ragged. In the middle of the Will Smith bit, he said something about the movie Emancipation and then said, "Sorry, I fucked up the joke. I meant Concussion." Still, he's been doing standup for decades and is capable of producing tighter material.

Dave Chapelle's point of view is problematic, but he really does know how to deliver an 8- or 9-minute piece that builds on themes and comes to a cohesive conclusion. Chris did not do that.

[cremetangerine82]

Mar 6, 2023 15:26:56 GMT -4 Ginger said:

I guess they livestreamed the special so that the Will Smith material everyone was waiting for wouldn't be misquoted in the media before people actually got to see the show. Without the benefit of multiple takes and editing (I think specials usually get filmed multiple times on different nights), the special might have been a little more ragged. In the middle of the Will Smith bit, he said something about the movie Emancipation and then said, "Sorry, I fucked up the joke. I meant Concussion." Still, he's been doing standup for decades and is capable of producing tighter material.

Dave Chapelle's point of view is problematic, but he really does know how to deliver an 8- or 9-minute piece that builds on themes and comes to a cohesive conclusion. Chris did not do that.

CW: trans-misogyny, suicide, The Slap^TM, Will Smith's assholery, divorce, bad marriages

I can't give any credit to Dave Chapelle; his The Closer special was a fictional tale of his "friendship" with a trans woman aspiring comedian he left unsupported on an open mic and still never attended her funeral or memorial services. He really tried to pull "I can't be transphobic, I have a trans woman friend" when she couldn't speak for herself, make a gross and misgendering joke about her suicide, and was such a "friend", he didn't know she had a daughter. R.I.P. Daphne Dorman (April 30, 1975 - October 11, 2019), you deserved a better tribute from a real friend.

I don't care if Chris Rock "didn't take the high road" or "be funny!" by addressing it in public. Will didn't do so, and is still a tiny boy for slapping a smaller man in front of millions and barely apologized months later. Both Will and Jada can stay in their toxic and unhealthy marriage, I don't care about their asses.

Chris Rock blames himself for his marriage breakup (but is not forgiven for outing Kerry Washington) and his children don't seem like talent-less nepo babies. Also, Chris Rock personally apologized to Wanda Sykes for The Slap^TM ruining her hosting duties at the Oscars. Chris Rock was right to call Jada out of her boycott because "her man wasn't nominated", not caring that #OscarsSoWhite had no I guess that's one black woman he's been nice to because she's not into men. Chris Rock is progressive, but not for black women.

[cubanitafresca]

I have to say my feelings have been all over the map with this situation.

At the time I was totally disgusted with what Will did and the rush of support that he got vs what Chris seemed to get. And I still feel that way (mostly).

So, when I saw the clips from the comedy show, I thought, well that's messy and angry, but good on Chris. He's right about most of that. For Will to attack a guy Chris's size was absolute cowardice imo. To do it in front of their professional peers was classless and a pretty horrible example of how to handle things.

But Chris seems to have a lot of anger towards Jada, almost more than Will. It makes me wonder if some of the rumors are true about him holding a grudge for years because she turned him down. Many of the black women I follow and respect on Twitter feel that Chris has always had it out for black women. I've never followed his career closely enough to know if that's accurate. But in that light, some of the things he said, seem a lot uglier.

On the flip side, that whole entanglements thing was pretty disgusting on Jada's part. Her willingness to humiliate her husband publicly was horrible and that doesn't even begin to touch the damage she may have done to her own son. So I can't say I have a lot of sympathy for her either.

They are all varying degrees of awful people it seems like.