Chris Rock’s latest Netflix special, Selective Outrage, has been met with mixed reactions in the two days following its live-stream release on March 4. While some have already deemed it brilliant, others took issue with Rock’s decision to lampoon Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith a year after the Concussion actor slapped the comic onstage during the 2022 Oscars, calling the comic “bitter” and unable to move on following Smith’s several apologies.
It appears, however, that Rock’s fellow stand-ups have no problem speaking up in defense of the Brooklyn native’s rant, with both D.L. Hughley and Leslie Jones calling out “hypocrites” attacking Rock for sharing his perspective on the incident.
Saturday Night Live alum Jones addressed the matter in response to an Instagram follower of Hughley’s who commented on a clip of Rock’s act, “You got to let stuff go at some point in your life…. This is how young brothers get killed in the streets… talking about something that happened a year ago. Setting a terrible example.”
Jones, 55, replied to the follower, “y’all forget he got slapped in front of the world yo! His kids, his mama, peers EVERYONE! I wonder how y’all muthaf**kas would handle that! And he is A COMEDIAN this is his way of expressing it. If he sang he would write a song. Cause it’s a painful thing that happen.”
She went on, “Y’all act like you would be righteous! YOU ARE HYPOCRITES! Shut the f**k up and go sit down.”
Hughley, 60, later shared another snippet from the special and addressed those calling Rock bitter, writing, “That happened to HIM, to CHRIS… and the ENTIRE WORLD got to weigh in and talk trash and make jokes and ‘shoulda, woulda, coulda’ the whole damn thing to death. OTHER COMEDIANS have bits about it, it was an opener for most of us. The ONE PERSON YOU NEVER HEARD FROM ABOUT IT WAS CHRIS!!
“So NOW, that HE decides to address it on HIS TIME, people have the audacity to say: “he’s bitter… Why is he still talking about that… let it go… or the best one WE’VE MOVED ON”. So YOU got to speak on it but he can’t??? Y’all are a straight f*n trip. Congratulations @chrisrock YOU DID THE DAMN THANG!! #TeamDL.”
Within the hour special filmed in Jada’s hometown of Baltimore, Rock, 58, accused the Red Table Talk host of being the root cause of her husband’s actions, believing the backlash he received due to Jada’s “entanglement” with August Alsina led him to misdirect his anger.
“Everybody knows his wife was f**king her son’s friend. I normally would not talk about this sh*t, but for some reason these ni**as put that sh*t on the internet,” he reminded the crowd. “She hurt him way more than he hurt me […] Everybody in the world called him a b***h. Everybody!” Rock added. “And who does he hit? Me. A ni**a he knows he could beat. That’s some b***h-a** s**t.”
The Smiths have yet to respond to Rock’s special.