It’s been almost a year since the Oscar slap that shocked the world, and Chris Rock is reportedly ready to come back swinging at Will Smith. (Verbally, that is.) Netflix
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is streaming its first-ever live event, “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” on Saturday at 10 p.m. Eastern time (7 p.m. Pacific time). Rock and Netflix committed to doing the live special in September 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported. The show is the second of two Netflix comedy specials that Rock committed to when he signed a $40 million deal with the streaming service in 2016.
Rock, 58, has largely kept quiet about the incident at last year’s Oscars ceremony, when Smith responded to a joke Rock cracked about the “Ali” actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, by walking onstage and slapping Rock across the face. But Rock’s hotly anticipated live special is expected to be the night when he won’t pull any punches. “The seven-second delay button is taking a night off: Chris Rock is back on Netflix and ready to tell you what he thinks … live,” the streaming service says in one of its promos for the main event. Look back: What just happened?!? Will Smith slaps Chris Rock over Oscars joke about his wife Rock has also reportedly been test-driving material addressing the Oscar incident that got Smith banned from the ceremony and all Academy Award events for the next 10 years — and now it seems that he’s ready for prime time. The title of the special, “Selective Outrage,” harks back to a Smith bit Rock has done on his recent Ego Death world tour, including during a Feb. 17 show at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre — where, coincidentally, the live …