Netflix Edits Chris Rock’s ‘Selective Outrage’ Special After Live Flub

Netflix‘s “live” Chris Rock special reportedly included a little editing. Rock’s Selective Outrage was marketed as the first livestreamed comedy event on the streaming service and was released last weekend to mixed reviews as well as plenty of drama, mostly concerning Rock’s comments regarding the slap of Will Smith at the Oscars. However, Netflix has edited out one of Rock’s onstage mistakes, leaving the show’s quality to be in dispute as a “live” recording. It was fairly obvious when Rock messed up a joke in the original live recording, attempting to make fun of Will Smith’s movie Concussion (2015). During a segment about Rock’s “feud” with Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, he tried to make a joke about that movie. The punchline about the slap (i.e., Will Smith “giving him a concussion”) does not make sense at all since he accidentally namechecks Emancipation (2022) instead. There is a moment of hesitation in which he paused and backtracked, saying, “Not Emancipation. I f— up the joke. Concussion.” He repeated this bit with the correct movie title, which was awkward, and some reviewers recognized it for what it was.

By retelling the entire joke, he made it easy for Netflix to go back and erase the mistake. That is exactly what happened, as Vulture critic Jesse David Fox observed. This moment appears to be perfectly natural when viewed on Netflix today (about four minutes after the show’s end), though the subtitle now reads “Streamed live and edited,” possibly a bit misleading for Netflix’s first live comedy show. In addition, Rock botched another small detail that was missed by most, a reference to Smith’s 2004 film Shark Tale. Rock referenced the Dreamworks movie when he compared his physical stature to Smith’s at the 2022 Academy Awards, making it clear that he was no physical threat to Smith when the Suicide Squad and I Am Legend actor assaulted him.

“People are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts! I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears!” he said, in reference to one of Smith’s songs. “But I’m not a victim, baby. You will never see me on Oprah, Gayle (King), crying.” Rock continued, “Will Smith is significantly bigger than me He does movies with his shirt off! You’ve never seen me do a movie with my shirt off. If I’m in a movie getting open heart surgery, I got on a sweater. Will Smith played Muhammed Ali in a movie! You think I auditioned for that part? I played Pookie in New Jack City. … Even in animation, he’s bigger: I’m a zebra, he’s a shark.” Rock apparently cited his role as Marty, the zebra in the Madagascar movie franchise. As to Smith’s shark role, it appears that Rock was referencing the Dreamworks movie Shark Tale, but Smith doesn’t play a shark in that film. Much of the film revolves around a Bluestreak cleaner wrasse named Oscar, helping out a timid shark named Lenny (Jack Black). In this regard, Rock’s joke doesn’t actually hold up.