Chris Rock "Selective Outrage" at times felt like a thematic riff off of one of David Chapelle's recent specials for Netflix. Woke culture, cancel culture, transgender issues, even mentioning Michael Jackson like Chapelle did.
There's definitely something of a familiar echo here, which at times Chris elaborates further on, and at times attempts to make a point and which he later backpedals on. Where he breaks new ground, it's enthralling, and where he fails, disappointing.
But overall, this is still Chris Rock in finer form than specials of the last couple years. He has appeared painfully confessional in the past, which has been awkward to watch. He retains some of that sense of embarrassment and necessity at moments, but resolves into an ending of confidence as he finally talks about the Will Smith debacle that has linked itself to Chris this past year.
I did not actually get the last line of the special; I wish it tied all the themes Chris laid out better than it actually did. Chris dropped his mic, but not on a mic drop line. But that wasn't important in the end, as what Chris really did with his special was drop the mic on Will Smith, who he finally called out for slapping him at the Oscars.
Glad to see Chris get his confidence back, as well as touch on a subject everyone has been wanting him to, while also imparting a meaningful message about the state of society, "selective outrage," and his unwillingness to get attention like he says the nation is addicted to by being a "victim." At least this, and probably the most important part, landed.
That is, there are four ways to get attention that the nation is addicted to: 1) showing a**, 2) being infamous, 3) being excellent, 4) being a victim. Which is a simple, concise and accurate reflection of social media and the state of modern news.
Other than this, probably the most meaningful part of the special is about Chris's daughter, who he gives a secret revelation to in the special. And Chris's thoughts on abortion.
I personally felt like Chris Rock wanted to avoid the controversy Chapelle faced about transgender issues by taking a far too safe stance about the hypothetical case if his father turned transgender. It was a let down for Chris to seem intimidated by getting canceled like Chapelle almost was in the same special where he was confronting wokeness like Chapelle did. Not that Chris Rock has to be controversial if he doesn't have controversial views, but why hide behind the voice of his brother to say anything vaguely transphobic. Why bring up the topic at all if Chris was just going to give the Lululemon yoga pants version of his views. Sure he got applause, but personally, I didn't buy what he was saying as he also tried to sell a conflicting picture of how non-accepting Black people are in general as authentic reality. Then he said he would "immediately" accept his hypothetical transgender father, just because he was an "artist"? Sorry but he contradicted his own paradigm and made his positivity seem inauthentic.
This contradiction unfortunately took away from the ending for me, when it was completely avoidable by just not attempting to cover all the points that Chapelle tried to. If Chris Rock was going to comment on Chapelle's specials, he should've committed to it. I wish there was that through line, even though I actually do believe Chris Rock added to the conversation Dave Chapelle started about confronting woke culture and the state of society today, but just in other ways.
There's definitely something of a familiar echo here, which at times Chris elaborates further on, and at times attempts to make a point and which he later backpedals on. Where he breaks new ground, it's enthralling, and where he fails, disappointing.
But overall, this is still Chris Rock in finer form than specials of the last couple years. He has appeared painfully confessional in the past, which has been awkward to watch. He retains some of that sense of embarrassment and necessity at moments, but resolves into an ending of confidence as he finally talks about the Will Smith debacle that has linked itself to Chris this past year.
I did not actually get the last line of the special; I wish it tied all the themes Chris laid out better than it actually did. Chris dropped his mic, but not on a mic drop line. But that wasn't important in the end, as what Chris really did with his special was drop the mic on Will Smith, who he finally called out for slapping him at the Oscars.
Glad to see Chris get his confidence back, as well as touch on a subject everyone has been wanting him to, while also imparting a meaningful message about the state of society, "selective outrage," and his unwillingness to get attention like he says the nation is addicted to by being a "victim." At least this, and probably the most important part, landed.
That is, there are four ways to get attention that the nation is addicted to: 1) showing a**, 2) being infamous, 3) being excellent, 4) being a victim. Which is a simple, concise and accurate reflection of social media and the state of modern news.
Other than this, probably the most meaningful part of the special is about Chris's daughter, who he gives a secret revelation to in the special. And Chris's thoughts on abortion.
I personally felt like Chris Rock wanted to avoid the controversy Chapelle faced about transgender issues by taking a far too safe stance about the hypothetical case if his father turned transgender. It was a let down for Chris to seem intimidated by getting canceled like Chapelle almost was in the same special where he was confronting wokeness like Chapelle did. Not that Chris Rock has to be controversial if he doesn't have controversial views, but why hide behind the voice of his brother to say anything vaguely transphobic. Why bring up the topic at all if Chris was just going to give the Lululemon yoga pants version of his views. Sure he got applause, but personally, I didn't buy what he was saying as he also tried to sell a conflicting picture of how non-accepting Black people are in general as authentic reality. Then he said he would "immediately" accept his hypothetical transgender father, just because he was an "artist"? Sorry but he contradicted his own paradigm and made his positivity seem inauthentic.
This contradiction unfortunately took away from the ending for me, when it was completely avoidable by just not attempting to cover all the points that Chapelle tried to. If Chris Rock was going to comment on Chapelle's specials, he should've committed to it. I wish there was that through line, even though I actually do believe Chris Rock added to the conversation Dave Chapelle started about confronting woke culture and the state of society today, but just in other ways.