It appears that Chris Rock’s recent stand-up special on Netflix, Selective Outrage, has undergone some changes.
Specifically, a joke he made about Will Smith and his film Concussion was reportedly amended after the original version of the special was live-streamed on Wednesday.
According to reports, Chris had mistakenly referred to the film as Emancipation, which ruined the punchline of his joke about the incident in which Will slapped him across the face at the 2022 Oscars.
In the original version of Selective Outrage, Chris was quoted as saying, “Years ago, his wife said I should quit the Oscars. I shouldn’t host ’cause her man didn’t get nominated for Emancipation. The biggest piece of s**t ever. Okay, so the [sic] gives me a f**ing concussion. No, not Emancipation, I f*d up the joke. Concussion.”
However, in the updated version of the special, Emancipation has been replaced with Concussion, and the sentence in which Chris acknowledges his mistake has apparently been deleted.
Fans were quick to notice the change, with many taking to social media to express their disappointment that Chris had “botched” the joke.
However, others noted that Netflix had “fixed” the mistake in the days since the special was first released. Some even suggested that the streaming platform had “deleted” the error entirely.
Despite the controversy, Chris’s stand-up routine also included jokes about Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and her admission in 2020 that she had an “entanglement” with singer August Alsina while she and Will were on a break.
Chris joked that Will practices “selective outrage” and poked fun at Jada’s confession, saying, “His wife was f****** her son’s friend. Now, I normally would not talk about this s***, but for some reason, these n***** put that s*** on the internet. I have no idea why two people that talented would do something that low-down.”
However, according to a source who spoke to Entertainment Tonight, Will was reportedly “embarrassed and hurt” by the routine. It remains to be seen how this controversy will affect Chris’s relationship with Will and Jada in the future, or whether it will have any impact on his career as a comedian.
In any case, this incident serves as a reminder of the power of words and the importance of being mindful of the impact that our jokes and comments can have on others. While comedy can be a great source of entertainment and laughter, it is important to remember that it can also be hurtful and damaging if not used responsibly.
As Chris himself acknowledged in his routine, “We all been cheated on. Everybody in here has been cheated on. None of us have ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us on television. None of us. … Why the f*** would you do that s***? She hurt him way more than he hurt me, okay?”
Yikes…
