Description
SELECTIVE OUTRAGE 03/04/23: Rock performs at the Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Centere for The Performing Arts in Baltimore, at Maryland, but fans in 190 countries around the globe caught this LIVE.
It was nearly a year ago that Will Smith marched onto the Dolby Theatre stage and smacked the piss out of host Chris Rock in the middle of the Oscars ceremony — all for the crime of making an off-color joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hairdo. You surely know what happened next: instead of removing him from the venue, the Academy allowed Smith to stay, leading to a surreal, rambling acceptance speech (through tears) when he won the Best Actor Oscar for King Richard later that night. At an after party, an inebriated Smith was captured on video beaming while dancing with the Oscar to his hit “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.”
While Smith took months to issue a video apology for The Slap, and recently poked fun at it in a TikTok, Rock has remained relatively tight-lipped about the episode, turning down interviews — and an offer to return as host of this year’s Oscars — and saving his response for the stand-up stage. On the evening of March 4, Rock released his new stand-up special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage on Netflix, marking the first time the streamer has aired a live stand-up concert. The show, which took place in Baltimore, Maryland, contained Rock’s most full-throated response to the slap seen ‘round the world.
Clad in all white, like he just walked off the set of the music video for “I Want It That Way,” the comedian took the stage to a roaring round of applause. “I’m gonna try to do a show tonight without offending nobody,” he announced, adding, “Because you never know who might get triggered.” The centerpiece of Rock’s special is the concept of “selective outrage,” or people “canceling” others for certain things while letting people slide for a similar offense, like when people will play Michael Jackson but won’t play R. Kelly because one of them has “better songs.”
After taking on the hypocrisy of “woke” businesses, the attention economy (from a stand-up comic, ironically enough), the white male grievance on display during the Jan. 6 riot, Meghan Markle, the Kardashians, abortion, and how Elon Musk’s body “looks so weird” due to a lack of sperm from getting his dick sucked all the time, Rock addressed the elephant in the room over the course of ten minutes.
Total Running Time 1 Hour 09 Minutes
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