CNN
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It’s the night Chris Rock makes streaming history.
“Chris Rock is in Samurai mode,” comedian Leslie Jones said in an intro.
And he is.
“I’m going to try to do a show tonight without offending nobody. I’m going to try my best, because you never know who might get triggered,” Rock said as he opened his set from Baltimore. “People always say words hurt … anybody who says words hurt has never been punched in the face.”
He went on: “I have no problem with the wokeness. I have no problem with it at all. I’m all for social justice. I’m all for marginalized people getting their rights. The thing I have a problem with is the selective outrage,” Rock said. “You know what i’m talking about. One person does something, they get canceled. Somebody else does the exact same thing, nothing. You know what I’m talking about … the kind of people who play Michael Jackson songs but won’t play R. Kelly. Same crime, one of them just has better songs.”
Rock, wearing all white and a Prince symbol medallion necklace, stood in front of a background that resembled cracked mirrors. (Suggesting, perhaps, a theme of people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.)
Rock hit on several topical issues, including addiction, abortion, racism in America, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and the Kardashian family.
Tackling the country’s division, Rocked said, “America is in horrible shape right now.”
“We got it worse than Ukraine. Yeah, I said it. You know why? Because Ukraine is united and America is clearly divided,” Rock joked. “If the Russians came here right now, half the country would say, “Let’s hear them out.’ We’re in a bad place right now.”
Rock delved into his romantic life, saying when he realized his pillow cases were dirty, he realized how much women do for men.
“I’m trying to date women my age, which is 10 to 15 years younger than me,” he said. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game. I didn’t get rich and stay in shape to talk about Anita Baker. I’m trying to f— Doja Cat.”
“Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” the first ever live global streaming event for Netflix.
The performance marks Rock’s sixth standup special and his second for Netflix after 2018’s “Tamborine,” directed by Bo Burnham.
A pre-show kicked off with Ronny Chieng live from Los Angeles, where he told the crowd, “We could have pretaped this whole thing and nobody would have cared, but we are doing this for a noble cause: To finally try to kill off traditional TV and put it out of it’s misery. In fact, if you listen hard you can hear Baby Boomers canceling the last cable subscription packages.”
Before that, U2’s Bono sang an opening about Rock.
Arsenio Hall followed Chieng with a joke about how Will Smith is going to get so mad tonight he’ll slap the TV off the wall.
This story is developing and will be updated….
