Controversial comedian Chris Rock returned to the public eye on Saturday with the debut of his comedy special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage on Netflix. The special featured Rock clapping back at Will Smith almost a year to the day from their incident at last year’s Academy Awards. As a reminder, Rock had joked about Jada Pinkett Smith at that event, causing Will Smith to slap him on the stage before shouting at him to no longer joke about Jada. Rock has been doing stand-up on tour but has not spoken publicly about the fiasco ever since.
As it turns out, Rock was being very wise by holding back on sharing his side of the story, as that led to a huge payday from Netflix. Responding to the special on The View, the show’s co-hosts responded to the special, with Whoopi Goldberg observing that it didn’t seem like Rock had accepted Smith’s apology. They also praised his business sense by getting the most money out of his story by way of the high-dollar Netflix special.
“It’s taken him a year to respond,” Sunny Hostin said. “He responded on a $40 million Netflix special, which I think is brilliant. And that was his truth, that was how he experienced it.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin added,”I thought Chris Rock nailed it, I thought he came back swinging… it was smart that he waited a year.”
The co-hosts touched on some of the jokes Rock delved into, which included mocking the “entanglements” involving the marriage between Will and Jada. Griffin notes that she feels “gross” talking about others’ marriages, though she points out that the Smiths spoke about their marital issues publicly on Red Table Talk, essentially making it fair game.
“They decided to discuss their entanglement on national TV… So he’s like, ‘I didn’t want to bring this up. I didn’t want to talk about it, but you guys put it out there for everyone.’ I thought he nailed it.”
Related: Jeff Ross Praises Chris Rock for Netflix Special and Verbal Beatdown of Will Smith
Chris Rock Kept Jada’s Name Out of His Mouth, Technically
Netflix
It’s hard to imagine that Smith will be thrilled about Selective Outrage, but there might be some silver lining here. Navarro offers some praise for Rock with how funny she found the special to be before going on to point out that the comedian did technically abide by Smith’s request from last year to keep Jada’s name out of his mouth.
“I think he’s entitled to say his truth,” Ana Navarro said. “I’m even happier that he’s making money out of it. I think the timing has everything to do with the Oscars. They’re next week and the fact that it’s a year from now. I think the show was funny as hell.”
Navarro added, “By the way, he kept her name out of his mouth. He called her all sorts of other things, but he didn’t say, ‘Jada.'”
With that said, there were some moments that made Navarro uncomfortable. She suggested that joking about Smith’s movie Emancipation was going too far, as certain topics, such as slavery in this case, should be off limits from comedians.
“For me, there’s certain things that are sacred,” she says, though she agrees to disagree with the comedian. “But, he’s a comedian, so, we’re not gonna agree with everything, but, laugh all the way to the bank.”
You can watch the full breakdown from The View in the video below, and you can stream Chris Rock: Selective Outrage on Netflix.
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