Chris Rock has been criticized for making a joke about the tragic murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.
At a stand-up show in Phoenix on Sunday, the 57-year-old comedian revealed he had been asked to host next year’s Oscars after Will Smith infamously punched him during the 2022 show.
Rock then joked that he wouldn’t be going back to the Academy Awards because it would be like asking Simpson to “go back to the restaurant” where she left her glasses before she was killed, according to the Republic of Arizona.
Simpson was stabbed to death in 1994 and her ex-husband, OJ Simpson, was on trial for murder in one of the most publicized cases in history. He was acquitted, but the verdict was controversial.
People on social media slammed Rock for comparing the two incidents, and are now saying he may have deserved to be attacked by Smith, 53, for making a “GI Jane” joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia, because he is bald.
“The more Chris Rock talks, the more you begin to understand why Will Smith knocked the fire out of him,” one person who received more than 14,000 “likes.” tweeted.
Another sarcastic added, “Yes Chris Rock – you getting punched for talking about st–t and the brutal murder of nicole brown simpson are totally similar events. great analogy. you care all about violence against women. completely clear to us now.”
Photojournalist Gregory Anderson agreed, indicate that Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman’s father, who was murdered alongside Nicole, might have the “honour” of punching Rock for the bad joke now.
“Comparing what happened to him with what happened to Nicole Brown Simpson is really distasteful and not funny at all,” he added.
Others, however, cited the fact that the general public wasn’t so hard on Rock when Pinkett-Smith was the butt of his joke, claiming it was because she’s a “black woman.”
An user tweeted“No respect for the black woman, and that’s okay. But damn it, respect a dead white woman and he will be hated.”
Another wrote“So you [white women] who ran to Chris Rock’s defense after Will punched him, for insulting and insulting Jada, still on Chris Rocks’ side? I know you didn’t care about Jada’s feelings because she’s a… [black woman]but are you saying, ‘It was just a joke’ now that he’s insulted Nicole’s family?”
A Rock representative did not immediately respond to Vidak For Congress’s request for comment on the criticism.