‘Selective’ edit: Chris Rock’s ‘Concussion’ joke flub deleted from Netflix special
Written by ABC Audio All Rights Reserved on March 10, 2023
(NOTE LANGUAGE) During Chris Rock‘s widely hyped live special, Selective Outrage, he flubbed a joke in the heat of the moment — but Netflix has now apparently edited it out.
The bit came in the closing minutes of the stand-up, which was filmed live from Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre March 4, when Rock was fired up talking about Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and that notorious Oscars slap.
As Rock worked up to a thunderous, literal mic-drop ending, he vented of Jada, “Years ago, his wife said I should quit the Oscars; I shouldn’t host ’cause her man didn’t get nominated for Emancipation.” However, Rock quickly admitted, “No, not Emancipation, I f***ed up the joke.”
He quickly reset, with the joke that now stands on its own in the special, the seamless edit apparently hidden with a cutaway to the crowd. “She said that me, a f***ing grown-a** man, should quit his job because, ‘My husband didn’t get nominated for Concussion,’ and then [Smith] gave me a concussion!”
Emancipation came in later, when Rock said that after the slap he found himself cheering for Smith getting beaten onscreen in the runaway slave drama.
Jada announced in 2016 that she was skipping the ceremony after Will’s Concussion snub. During the Oscars telecast that year, host Rock jabbed, “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna‘s panties. I wasn’t invited.”
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