It appears that Chris Rock is courting controversy once again after comparing him being slapped to the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.
After being slapped onstage by Will Smith at this year’s Academy Awards, Chris Rock addressed the moment during a performance at the Arizona Financial Theatre on Sunday (August 28).
According to the The Arizona Republic, Rock reportedly revealed that he would not return to host next year’s Oscars, saying that it would be like Nicole Brown Simpson going back to the restaurant where she left a pair of glasses the night she was murdered.
For those unfamiliar, Simpson reportedly had dinner with family at an Italian restaurant the night she and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were murdered on June 12, 1994.
O.J. Simpson was indicted in both murders, but was acquitted in 1995.
Now, Rock’s joke is garnering controversy on social media, with some users deeming it both “tasteless” and “misogynistic. ”
yeah it’s a tasteless/sort of misogynistic joke three decades out of date, but it also doesn’t make any sense, since this alternate version of events would result in both victims being where OJ wasn’t https://t.co/2rFYDQZ0KS
— . (@thetomzone) August 29, 2022
The more Chris Rock talks, the more you begin to see why Will Smith smacked fire outta him. https://t.co/d361mdPaU0
— Baker Mayfield Is My Homeboy (@NotoriousVIC007) August 29, 2022
if will smith stay quiet long enough the world will understand why he slapped chris rock https://t.co/fj3NFZ3CrR
— Thicc James (@MelaninGriffith) August 29, 2022
"Chris Rock is now trivializing intimate-partner and gender-based violence," said Oni Blackstock, executive director of anti-racist advocacy group Health Justice. "He got slapped. She got murdered. There's no comparison."
Smith slapped Rock onstage at the 94th Oscars after the comedian made a joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, comparing it to G.I. Jane. In the wake of the controversy, Smith was banned from attending any Oscars ceremony for the next decade and has since apologized to Rock.
