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Television

Chris Rock’s joke about Will Smith removed from ‘Selective Outrage’

The edit comes after Chris Rock flubbed one of his jokes about Will Smith during the Netflix special.

Update:
The edit comes after Chris Rock flubbed one of his jokes about Will Smith during the Netflix special.
AaronP/Bauer-GriffinGetty

Chris Rock’s Netflix special ‘Selective Outrage’ has received a bit of an edit since it streamed to viewers on March 4.

Why one of Chris Rock’s jokes was edited out

Days after the stand-up comedy special debuted on Netflix, the streaming platform has edited out one of the comedian’s jokes from the set.

The joke in question by Rock was directed at Will Smith, though it wasn’t edited out due to its content. Instead, it was removed because the comedian messed it up during the live set.

Rock was joking about Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith toward the end of the special, when he began to discuss a conversation he had with the actor about hosting the Oscars in 2016.

That year saw Pinkett Smith boycott the ceremony in protest of the Academy’s history of a lack of diversity.

“Years ago, his wife said I should quit the Oscars; I shouldn’t host ‘cause her man didn’t get nominated for ‘Emancipation,’ the biggest piece of s**t ever!” Rock said during the special.

“No, not ‘Emancipation,’ I f**ked up the joke.”

Rock was meant to refer to Smith’s 2015 film ‘Concussion’, which is based on the true story of neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, played by Smith, who was the first to discover CTE - chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

He then went on to correct the joke: “She started this s**t. She said that me, a f**king grown-ass man, should quit his job because, ‘My husband didn’t get nominated for ‘Concussion.’”

Rock aware of the edit

A source close to the production told various outlets that Rock and Netflix agreed on the final cut, and that edits are common for comedy specials.

Netflix also displays a caption which states that the special was “streamed live and edited” in its current iteration.

A source recently told Entertainment Tonight that Smith didn’t watch the special, but that he is aware of what Rock said.

“Will is embarrassed and hurt by what Chris said about him and his family in his Netflix special. He didn’t watch it, but he had people tell him what Chris said,” said the source. 

“It’s everywhere when you look online and on social media, so Will and Jada have seen comments about it.”