Many comedians will say their material is meant to get people talking, but some bits can be viewed as downright offensive. Following the March 4 Netflix release of Chris Rock’s Selective Outrage comedy special, one of Michael Jackson’s relatives is thanking Will Smith for the Oscars slap seen around the world.
By now, it’s been pretty hard to escape the Smith-Rock saga. As previously reported by REVOLT, at the 2022 Oscars, “The Fresh Prince” left his seat at the coveted awards show and forcefully smacked the “Everybody Hates Chris” actor on live television for making an insensitive joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s lack of hair. The actress suffers from the hair loss disease alopecia. Rock declined to press charges and declined Will’s apology but has never really stopped using the incident as a punch line for his comedy shows. This past weekend, the comedian released his frustrations on stage for millions to see. During the hour-long program, Rock also compared Michael Jackson to R. Kelly, which didn’t sit well with the “King of Pop’s” family members.
Both Kelly and Jackson have been plagued with accusations of pedophilia throughout their careers; however, Jackson was acquitted and never served jail time. “Chris Rock has used my family as punching bags for his entire career, yet I am supposed to feel bad for him getting slapped and humiliated [at] the Oscars. After seeing a new clip of him attacking my dead uncle in the first minutes of his ‘Retaliation — l’m still relevant’ special, I have [three] things to say,” Taj Jackson, Michael’s nephew, tweeted yesterday (March 6). First, he asked, “What did my family ever do to you to warrant these decades of harassment and your constant bullying [disguised] as jokes?” Second, he stated, “Just because you were bullied early on in life doesn’t give you the excuse to bully others now.”
Last but not least, Taj wrote, “Thank you, Will Smith.” Rock also faced backlash for admitting during the show that the only reason he watched Will’s latest movie was to see him get beat. “The other day, I watched Emancipation just so I could watch him getting whipped,” the “In Living Color” alum said of the film set during slavery. After hearing the crude jokes, many on Twitter felt that “Will didn’t smack him hard enough.” Taj and others also noted that Rock previously allowed two white comedians to repeatedly say “n**ger” in his presence and wished “he’d look in the mirror regarding his own Selective Outrage.”
View related tweets below.