I went out of control realizing I would not be able to sort the account details issues I didn’t know I had early enough with my Netflix until the moment I came across the trailer announcing Chris Rock’s Netflix Special “Selective Outrage.” The show became the most important event for the month of March 2023. I forgot about the general election woes and new currency fatality bla bla blu (matters arising) ongoing in my fatherland: Nigeria.
Why? I don’t know. Is it because I love Chris Rock? Or that I never had the opportunity to watch Christopher Julius Rock perform live stand-up comedy? Or that I wanted to listen to “Selective Outrage” to compare it with Trevor Noah’s I Wish You Could and Yvonne Orji’s A Whole Me?
What I know for sure is that the reviews I read after watching Chris Rock’s didactic Netflix record-breaking comedy special were blatant rubbish for most of them where they disagreed with Chris Rock. It makes me wonder if the reviewers had any intention to make their criticisms fair and honest. Or they just wanted to increase traffic to their pages rewriting the truth and excellence of a great comedian into imbecile clickbait headlines.
Could it be that the assessmenters like this USA TODAY writer wrote all this nonsense in an attempt to state the obvious that Everybody Hates Chris? Who would have ever imagined that Chris Rock would ever relive that Tyler James Williams character in his live-streamed TV Show?
But unlike the Chris role, Tyler Williams played in Everybody Hates Chris, this real-life 58-year-old Chris Rock is confident and unapologetic. That distinguishing factor makes “Selective Outrage” victorious and annoying to disagreeing writers. Does being a white writer have anything to do with many of the illogically unacceptable reviews “Selective Outrage” got? Does being a critic give you the right to be a bully?
While they would justify their “…producer failed him with his new Netflix special”, “…but Selective Outrage has a few loud out moments”, “…Selective Outrage Takes A Low Road”, “… 1 hour on buzzwords, 7 minutes on Will Smith, and Nothing Special” claims with their professional and experienced critique status, the sad pundits are just offended persons expressing their “Selective Outrage“ most likely because one of their favorite celebrities between Michael Jackson and Meghan Markle was dissed in a few minutes joke of the more than an hour comedy that was indeed exceptional.
I mean, if it wasn’t extra special why would busy writers take time out of a clogged schedule to compose thousands of ignorable word counts on a show that supposedly failed?
I refuse to accept that the comedy special was not powerful enough befitting the GOAT status of Julius. Chris Rock’s high-powered mobility (taking into consideration his age), potent master jokes, and formidable performance were influential to the extent that I decided on this review without a previous intention for it.
The show is extremely compelling that instead of writing my contribution for the Goethe Institute “Art Writing and Criticism Workshop” participants’ anthology whose deadline for submission of contribution is tomorrow (as of the day of the publication of this commentary), I decided upon this.
These depressed critics are like my wife who had a sentimental breakdown on my several innocently unharmful attempts to discuss some of the themes on racism and abortion rights Chris Rock discussed. Seeing the deceiving headlines and reading the confusing reviews, the applause flows back to Chris Rock. Because at the end of the day, the central agenda of separating the truths, lies, and facts in his special “Selective Outrage” is the main explanation behind popular media’s shortsighted evaluation.
How does a man comment on the canceling attitude in today’s society and happens to be canceled afterward? How can you confirm in your corny write-ups the themes of cancellation and selective outrage commented upon by Chris Rock yet refuse to agree that the show was indeed better than any comedy show we all have seen prior to the release of “Selective Outrage”? No offense to Trevor Noah and Yvonne Orji. Chris Rock was applauded as the GOAT by Kevin Hart and Dave Chappelle. Still, he worked hard to live beyond expectations with this historic show which comes immediately after Chris’ world tour.
Come on, how often do you listen to a comedy show once yet you remember the jokes word for word? The jokes are so memorable that it makes you want to start mimicking Chris Rock as you repeat the lines to your friends or family like a new kid throwing kicks in the air after watching a Bruce Lee movie. It’s that awesome a special.
By the way, when did comedy become not about the joke and the comedian’s artistic choice and freedom but about some words that were mistaken here and there? How many of these writers can do live writing (without the help of grammar-checking applications) standing for 60 minutes plus and not make more errors than Chris?
Also, when did it become the comedian’s fault if he decides to use elite condemned words like “nigga”, “fuck”, “motherfucker”, “bitch”, and the likes if his show is rated 18+? Directing this to critics, I ask: what makes you feel you need to submit negative comments about everything if you don’t have any contributions of sound judgment to make about some things?
“Ima try to do a show tonight without offending nobody. Okay? Ima try my best, you know why? Because you never know who might get triggered… say the wrong thing, motherfuckers get scared.”, these were the opening lines to “Selective Outrage.” Turns out the Black American word slinger can’t stop getting overly emotional people hurt with his punch lines. Even though he prompts them not to be incapacitated by his gospel authenticity.
Yeah, Trevor Noah knows how to say it without getting on your nerves. But hey, there is a reason Netflix gave this $ 40 million momentous deal to Chris Rock, right?
Moreover, like Chris rightfully said in the live show, “… one person does something they get canceled. Somebody else does the exact same thing, nothing.” Reading 95% of the dishonest critic reviews for “Selective Outrage” you grasp that “…not only is everybody full of shit, every business is full of shit” as Chris emphasizes in the show.
Clearly, the producers did not come by “Selective Outrage” by mistake as many of the reviews thought of the title and jokes. They knew what they were doing.
At the end of the day, Chris isn’t the sad old man yelling at clouds after all but the dissatisfied critics wailing with forgotten critics’ mindsets. Touchée!
CHANGE TALK TO MONEY PROJECT 