Chris Rock finally addressed the Slap in his new Netflix special
For the last year or so, Chris Rock toured the country and sold out dozens of shows while barely talking about the elephant in the room: being slapped on stage at the Oscars by Will Smith for making jokes about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Rock pledged to an audience, “I’m not talking about that until I get paid.” Well, Netflix opened its checkbook, and now we have Rock’s first longform response to the incident as part of Selective Outrage, his first new special in more than five years.
From its introductory moments, the Baltimore-set special was positioned as a triumphant return for the 58-year-old comedian. Coming out to Baby Keem’s “Family Ties,” dressed in all white and commanding the stage with signature aplomb, Rock was clearly charged up.
He teased the Smith jokes several times during the set, beginning by disputing the old adage “words hurt.” “Anybody who says that words hurt has never been punched in the face” he said.
In the last few minutes, he dove fully into the 2022 Academy Awards slap, referring to Will as “Suge Smith,” and tying the moment in to the special’s title and core theme of “selective outrage,” alleging that Smith was taking out his anger over his wife’s “entanglement’ with musician August Alsina and the public derision from his appearance on her Red Table Talk series on Rock.
“She hurt him way more than he hurt me,“ Rock said. “Who’d he hit? Me, a n**** he knew he could beat. That is some bitch-ass shit.”
Rock also referenced tension between he and Pinkett Smith dating back to the 2016 Oscars, which she said she boycotted due to poor diversity, but he claimed was because she was upset Will did not receive a nomination for the sports drama Concussion. The comic also drew attention to the size disparity between himself and Smith, who is known for playing muscular action stars.
“Will Smith is significantly bigger than me. Will Smith does movies with his shirt off, you’ve never seen me do movies with my shirt off. If I’m in a movie getting open heart surgery, I’ve got on a sweater,” Rock said. “Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie. You think I auditioned for that part? I played Pookie in New Jack City.”
Rock stressed that he had always been a fan of Smith’s, even seeing him open for Run-DMC in the early days of his music career, but admitted that since the incident takes some pleasure in watching his misfortune on screen. “Now, I watch Emancipation, just to see him get whupped.”
During the closing segment, Rock also responded to the vocal minority of people who bashed him for not retaliating in the moment. “‘Chris how come you didn’t do nothing back that night?’ Cause I got parents, because I was raised,’” he said to cap the performance. “You know what my parents told me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”
