“You all know what happened to me, getting punched by Suge Smith,” he joked.
Rock, who said he took the hit like boxer Manny Pacquiao, blamed Pinkett Smith’s “entanglements” for Smith’s outburst. “His wife was (had sex with) his son’s friend. Normally, I wouldn’t talk about it. … But for some reason (they) put this … on the internet,” Rock said, referring to the couple’s public remarks about infidelity in their relationship.
“She hurt him way more than he hurt me,” Rock said, joking that he still had “Summertime” (a 1991 Smith rap hit as part of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince) that echoed in his ear long after the slap. .
Rock said Smith’s masculinity was called into question then, but it was Rock who ended up paying the price. “Everyone called him b—-,” he said. “And who did he hit? Me. (Someone) he knows he can beat.
Pinkett Smith hasn’t been spared Rock’s criticism either. Rock said it all started after comments she made in 2016 when he hosted the Oscars once before. “She starts it…I finish it,” Rock said. (His version of all this will certainly be carefully considered and debated in the days to come.)
Rock ended the special with words of wisdom from his parents that stopped him from fighting back after Smith slapped him. “I have parents. And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.
Lasting just over an hour, Rock’s set swept through several hot topics, delivered in his trademark style. He talked about “woke” and “cancel” culture, and provided examples of “selective outrage” (“The kind of people who play Michael Jackson songs, but won’t play R. Kelly”) and ‘other modern hypocrisies: ‘Typin’ out woke-a–phone tweets made by child slaves. He talked about opioids. He talked about Meghan Markle. He talked about women, abortion, OJ Simpson, the Kardashians. He shared a personal story about his daughter being expelled from an elite high school. He spoke about the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol: “When did white men become victims? White men think they are losing the country,” he said. “Have you seen the Capitol Riots? What kind of white ‘planet of the apes’ s— was This?”