Chris Rock’s Will Smith Joke Has Been Canceled By Netflix, Are They Censoring Other Things?
One of the jokes Chris Rock made about Will Smith on his Netflix special Selective Outrage has been edited out because the comedian messed up the delivery.
If you saw Chris Rock’s recent Netflix comedy special, Selective Outrage, you know that rather than shy away from the subject of Will Smith, the comedian delivered a scathing 9 minutes at the end to what happened at the 2022 Oscars. Now The Hollywood Reporter says Netflix has edited out one of the jokes at the end of the special, but apparently not because of any “offensive” content. Instead, the streamer says it edited out a joke about Smith’s 2015 film Concussion because Rock messed up the delivery.
If you saw the special before the edit, or one of the heavily trafficked clips, then you may remember at one point Rock admits he messed up:
“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 shit ever! … No, not Emancipation, I f—ed up the joke.”
-Chris Rock
As THR notes, Chris Rock was meaning to say not “Emancipation” but Will Smith’s biopic Concussion. Back in 2016, Jada Pinkett Smith was a part of 2016’s #OscarsSoWhite movement, which was protesting the exclusion of people of color from the awards. According to Rock, Pinkett Smith suggested Rock should join the boycott against the ceremony specifically because her husband didn’t get a nomination for Concussion.
After acknowledging he messed up the joke, Chris Rock backtracked and told the Will Smith joke as he meant to, much to the audience’s amusement.
According to THR, the edits Netflix made to Chris Rock’s Will Smith jokes were done with the comic’s knowledge and involvement.
This is not the first time Chris Rock has brought the disagreement about Will Smith’s Concussion on stage, and in fact he apparently did it long before the now infamous slap. While hosting the 2016 Oscars, Rock quipped, “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.”
At the same ceremony, Chris Rock also joked, “[You] said, ‘It’s not fair that Will was this good [in Concussion] and didn’t get nominated!’ You’re right! It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for Wild Wild West! OK?”
A year ago this month, Chris Rock was slapped by Will Smith on stage at the Academy Awards ceremony. The attack came after Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s short hair. In the immediate aftermath there was a lot of speculation, including those wondering if the moment was staged, and in spite of it all Smith still walked away with the Best Actor trophy for his performance in King Richard.
Because of the assault on Chris Rock, Will Smith has since banned from all Academy Awards events for the next 10 years. Smith is still, in fact, eligible to be nominated for Oscars but — in the event he does win — until 2033 the Emancipation star will not be allowed to show up personally to accept any awards.
