A year after the Oscars slap, Chris Rock hit back with a new Netflix special

One year later Will Smith beat him on stage at the Oscars, Chris Rock finally had his say in a hard-hitting stand-up specialstreamed live on Netflix, in which the comedian bragged about taking the shot “like Pacquiao”.

The 58-year-old comedian performed his first stand-up special since last year’s Oscars on Saturday night. “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” broadcast live from the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore, marked Netflix’s first foray into live streaming. But it was also a long-awaited comedic reaction to the Oscar episode.

Rock, dressed all in white and with a Prince medallion around his neck, immediately referred to the Oscar last year talking about “awakening”, hypersensitivity and what he called “selective outrage”.

“You never know who might be on,” Rock said. “Anyone who says words hurt hasn’t been punched in the face.”

But Rock then embarked on a series of general topics looking at contemporary issues, including high-priced yoga pants, the Duchess of Sussex, the Kardashians, abortion rights, the Capitol Hill riot and whatnot. which he called America’s biggest addition: drawing attention.

“We used to want love, now we just want likes,” Rock said.

He made it clear that “Selective Outrage” wasn’t going to be just a Will Smith show, but he devoted a good chunk of his show to the incident.

“You all know what happened to me when Suge Smith hit me. Everyone knows that,” Rock said. “It still hurts. I have ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.”.

While Smith has repeatedly apologized and spoken out about the incident since last March, Rock had even avoided all the usual platforms celebrities go to to air their feelings. She never sat down with Oprah Winfrey and shunned the media extensively.

“I’m not a victim, baby,” Rock said. “You’ll never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying. You’ll never see it. It’ll never happen.”

He focused on physical differences with Smith. “We are not the same size. This guy does shirtless movies,” he said, adding, “You’ll never see me do a shirtless movie. If I’m in a movie and I have open-heart surgery, I wear a sweater.”

“He played Muhammed Ali,” Rock continued. “I played Pookie in ‘New Jack City’.”

During his monologue, moreover, suggested he had been caught in the crossfire in Smith’s relationship with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The comedian referenced Pinkett Smith’s earlier confession to an “entanglement” with another man while she was married and shot: “She hurt him more than he hurt me.”

“I love Will Smith,” Rock added. “Now I watch ‘Emancipation’ just to see him scream.”

Before dropping his microphone and raising his arms in triumph, Rock said the reason he didn’t fight back physically at the Oscars was because of his parents: “And do you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”

For much of the past year, Rock has played new material in a long series of shows as part of his Ego Death Tour.

In the aftermath of the events of last year, Smith resigned his film academy membership. The academy’s board banned Smith from attending the Academy Awards and all other academy events for a decade.

(with information from AP)

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