Selective Outrage: the key things we learned from Chris Rock’s long-awaited Netflix special

Chris Rock’s long-awaited standup special, Selective Outrage, saw its live-streaming debut take place on streaming giant Netflix over the weekend. The stand-up was the first even live-streaming event on the platform and given Rock’s remained semi-tight-lipped over that Oscars 2022 moment, the streaming platform couldn’t have picked a better event to trial their live-streaming capacity.

While naturally most of the attention from the standup will be what Chris Rock’s take on the now infamous Oscars slap heard around the world, Rock didn’t limit himself to that event, as he brought up the concept of white men being ‘victims,’ the concept of major brands ‘woke washing’ and barbs aimed at Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. “I’m going to try to do a show tonight without offending nobody,” Rock said early into his standup special; “You never know who might get triggered.”

Early reviews for the stand-up have been divisive, with several social media users referring to Chris Rock having lost a step and being the ‘atypical angry boomer,’ while others celebrated the return of one of comedy’s most influential names and tacit approach to many topical issues, despite his less than tacit approach to articulate such problems.

In their review of the standup, the Los Angeles Times said that “Rock remains worth listening to, because there’s nothing casual about what he does, and most importantly, he knows how to craft and sell a joke. You may laugh even when you’re offended.”

PeopleWorld takes a look at some of the key things viewers learned during the stand-up special, which is now available on demand for all Netflix subscribers.

The Oscars Slap inspired the name of the special

The title of his stand-up was inspired by his experiences as a presenter at the Academy Awards 2022, and the subsequent fallout after Will Smith’s slap and subsequent Best Actor win shortly afterward. In particular, the ‘selective outrage’ of the slaps perpetrator, Will Smith.

“Will Smith practices ‘Selective Outrage,’” Rock explained. “Everybody who really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that sh*t. I didn’t have any ‘entanglements.’ We’ve all been cheated on, everybody in here been cheated on. None of us has ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us, on television… She hurt him way more than he hurt me.”

“I loved Will Smith, my whole life I loved him,” he went on. “I saw him open for Run DMC … he has made some great movies. I have rooted for Will Smith my whole life. And now I watch Emancipation just to see him get whooped.”

He took aim at the royal family as a whole, not just Meghan and Harry

While there was plenty of room in his standup to riff on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, including his confusion about the offence of asking what colour Archie would be, he didn’t simply limit himself to the couple - instead, aiming at the institution itself.

“What the f**k is she talking about she didn’t know? It’s the royal family. They’re the original racists. They invented colonialism. They are the OG’s of racism. They’re the Sugarhill Gang of racism.”

He went on: “That’s like marrying into the Budweiser family and going, ‘They drink a lot.’”

He was fed up with ‘woke’ corporate brands taking empty stances on major issues

A point of contention whenever the word is brought up in conversation, Rock might not be tired of social progress and activism from a grassroots level, but he has an issue with a corporate brand using ‘wokeness’ as a form of generating capital, both fiscally and emotionally, rather than having a genuine concern for the issues they’re advocating.

“Not only is everybody full of sh*t, every business is full of sh*t,” he began. “They don’t even tell you about the product no more, they just tell you how much charity they do. Who gives a f**k?” he said. “You’re just selling yoga pants! I don’t need your yoga pants politics. Tell me how you work on [sweat around a certain area the sun doesn’t shine much].”

He feels that Americans are obsessed with attention and feeling like victims.

In a particularly biting moment during his special, Rock riffed on the idea that everyone acts like a victim in the United States for one reason only - attention. “There are people in this world who have gone through unspeakable trauma, they need your love, they need your support, they need your care,” Rock clarified.

“But if everybody claims to be a victim, when the real victims need help, ain’t nobody going to be there to help them. And right now, we live in a world where the emergency room is filled up with mother***kers with papercuts.”

He then pivoted to talking about MAGA supporters, in particular those who felt that former POTUS Donald Trump and several white males involved in the January 6 uprising on Capitol Hill were acting as victims.

“Did you see the Capitol riots? What kind of white ‘Planet of the Apes’ s**t was that? White men actually think they’re losing the country. Did you see the Capitol Riots? White men trying to overthrow the government that they run!”