Celebrities
Greg Evans
Mar 05, 2023
content.jwplatform.com
Chris Rock, in a Netflix stand-up special, has finally publically addressed the infamous slap he received from Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars but viewers have noticed a mistake with one of his jokes.
During his hour-long special dubbed Selective Outrage, which was broadcast live on Netflix from Baltimore, Rock finally unloaded on Smith nearly a year after the comedian was struck in the face by the Academy Award winner after making a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's alopecia.
The moment sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry and whereas the Smiths have spoken about what happened, Rock has until now remained relatively silent.
Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Rock waited until the end of his set to talk about Smith, with one of the main point he made was to point out how much physically bigger Will Smith is than him, making a joke about the contrast of characters they've played in movies.
The 58-year-old said: "The thing people wanna know … did it hurt? Hell yeah, it hurt. He played Muhammad Ali! I played Pookie (in ‘New Jack City’). Even in animated movies, I’m a zebra, he’s a fucking shark. I got hit so hard, I heard ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears."
While a valid and amusing point to make, viewers have pointed out that one segment of this joke doesn't work. The animated movies that Rock is referring to are Madagascar where he plays Marty the zebra and Shark Tale, which stars Smith in the lead role.
However, in Shark Tale Smith does not play a shark. He plays a bluestreak cleaner wrasse fish named Oscar.
Although Rock clearly had bigger fish to fry (no pun intended), people have been pointing out that the joke doesn't work, even though it got a laugh from the audience at the time.
One person said: "Not the point but Will Smith did not play a shark in Shark Tale."
Another added: "Will wasn’t even a shark in Shark Tale."
A third said: "Chris Rock thinks Will Smith played the shark in Shark Tale."
Others questioned if Rock had even seen the movie. One wrote: "this man has never seen shark tales."
A second joked: "today I learned Chris Rock has never watched Shark Tale."
While a third person said: "All I gather from this is that Chris Rock has not seen the 2004 masterpiece that is Shark Tale."
For those interested, the main shark in the movie was voiced by Robert De Niro.
Elsewhere in the set, Rock poked fun at Meghan Markle, brushing off her racism claims against the royal family as "in-law s**t."
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)
x