Celebrity

Chris Rock Returns to ‘SNL’ in Wake of COVID-19 Battle

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Chris Rock appears to have made a full recovery after suffering from a breakthrough case of COVID-19 in September. The comedian made a cameo appearance during Kim Kardashian‘s episode of Saturday Night Live. Rock was one of the professional handsome men who were contestants on “The Dream Guy,” a Bachelor-style parody that also featured John Cena, Jesse Williams, Blake Griffin, Amy Schumer and Chace Crawford. 

Rock contracted a breakthrough case of COVID-19 back in September, and he opened up about testing positive on Twitter while offering his followers very concise advice. “Hey guys I just found out I have COVID, trust me you don’t want this,” Rock tweeted. “Get vaccinated.” People filled Rock’s mentions with their own stories of getting the Delta variant, praising the vaccine for making the absolutely brutal strain survivable. 

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Rock has spoken repeatedly about getting vaccinated, starting with a January interview with Gayle King for CBS Sunday Morning. When King noted that there was “trepidation” in the Black community over the vaccine, Rock explained that he “can’t wait” to get vaccinated. “Let me put it this way: Do I take Tylenol when I get a headache? Yes,” he explained. “Do I know what’s in Tylenol? I don’t know what’s in Tylenol, Gayle. I just know my headache’s gone. Do I know what’s in a Big Mac, Gayle? No. I just know it’s delicious.” King also noted that Rock “clearly takes COVID very seriously,” given that they were sitting outside his New Jersey home in the winter like “human Popsicles” for the interview.

Rock spoke about it again when he visited The Today Show to promote Spiral: From the Book of Saw in May. He told Jimmy Fallon that he got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “I’m two-shots Rock, that’s what they call me,” Rock said, joking that J&J was “the food stamps of vaccines.” Rock also joked that he used his celebrity status to cut the line for a vaccine. “I didn’t care. I used my celebrity, Jimmy,” Rock joked. “I was like, ‘Step aside, Betty White, I did Pootie Tang. Step aside, old people.’”

“I was like Billy Zane on the Titanic. Leo [DiCaprio] died,” he continued. “Billy Zane lived to see another day. I don’t want to be Leo at the bottom of the ocean. Billy Zane got another woman after that thing. In reality, you want to be Leo — but not in that movie.” Rock joked that he wasn’t feeling any adverse effects from his shots, aside from “a little foot going out of my a–.”