Chris Rock: C/D

"Talk to me about the future of Public Enemy."

Leonard Pt 6, easily. In fact, I've always had a fondness for that movie.

I did standup in NYC in the late'80s/early '90s, and saw Rock go on at the Comic Strip (pre-SNL) a couple hours after I auditioned. He was best known then as "Eddie Murphy's protege," and he thoroughly bombed. I admire how hard he's worked on his chops since then, but his Oscar comments (incl finding The Aviator "weird" when it isn't nearly weird enough) shows how basically unadventurous his mindset is.

Bernie Mac is like a sponge of troubles, he absorbs the misery of others but remains, himself, unfulfilled.

From the Orlando Sentinel, September 11, 1999:

...the freaky fashions on Thursday's show, which earned the highest rating ever for an entertainment program on cable TV, seemed bland compared to the jabs host Chris Rock took at the artists throughout his monologue and introductions.

Among those hardest hit were 'N Sync - or as Rock says he likes to call them "The Spice Boys" - and Britney Spears. In addition to walking away empty-handed, they had to endure being introduced by Rock to 12 million viewers with two questions:

"Are you ready for some lip-syncing? Are you ready for some real lip-syncing?"

Orlando's Johnny Wright, who manages both, said Friday, "The premature comment, made by Chris Rock, was overshadowed by the terrific live vocal performance of Britney Spears."

Rock's other targets included:

The Backstreet Boys: "They're from the back streets? Wooo, I'm scared of that neighborhood. I want to know who lives on the front street, Big Bird? I want to know who's going to be the bad Backstreet Boy ... who's going to be the one who gets Britney Spears pregnant?"

After the guys belted out "Larger Than Life" in black vinyl, Rock quipped: "Look at 'em - they got tougher. They're gonna change their name to C.W.A. - Crackers with Attitude."

White rapper Kid Rock: "Take off your thinking cap and lower your standards, it's Kid Rock! ... Kid Rock looks like a substitute pimp ... like the NutraSweet black man."

Sean "Puffy" Combs: "I know I'm going to get my ass whupped for this but ... Puffy's got a new album called Forever. Forever? What are you trying to say, Puff? You know if the album doesn't sell, the next one is going to be called How About Three More Months?

Jennifer Lopez: "You don't thank your ass enough. I've seen Jennifer on TV thanking her mama, her daddy, her acting coach ... you better thank your ass before it goes solo."

Ricky Martin: "He's stretching that thing ["Livin' La Vida Loca"] like it was turkey meat. He needs another hit bad - bad like a crackhead needs another hit or he's ... gonna be singing "La Vida Broke-a."

Janet Jackson: "All over the world this woman is known as "the reigning diva," but in her home she's known as 'the normal one."'

"What's going on in the music business?" Rock asked. "The same thing that's always going on in the music business. Black man does something; 15 years later, white man does the same thing. And makes a lot more money."

Rock was clearly not big fan of The Blair Witch Project. "Is that a movie? I thought I was watching a wedding in the woods. ... The movie cost only $60,000. ... Where the hell did all the money go? Somebody's walking around with $59,000 in his pocket."

Chapelle makes me laugh, but he has misses. His jokes work on a few levels.

Chris Rock is SO biting, and hits on SO many levels it's not even fair to compare him to anyone else.

None of those other three have shown me much evidence of being in Pryor's galaxy. It's like ppl comparing any rotely profane comic to Lenny Bruce.

A serious side.

"Mr. Rock?" U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer said brightly. "Project."

[as Pooky peers into camera in despair] Scottie, help me - I'm gonna die!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So

Listening to "Born Suspect" and it's pretty damn funny. I can't believe this was almost 20 years ago. That's insane! But yeah, it's very funny - more so then some of the later stuff I think.

“Black people aren’t crazy. Black people do stupid things, black people snatch rope chains and rob liquor stores. Black people generally arent’ crazy. When you watch the news and hear somebody got their head chopped off, or somebody drank the blood and used the toes to play pool with, chances are that was a white guy! An old lady kicked down the stairs for a welfare check? Black guy! “Gimme dat fo’ dollah check!” Brothers’ be in jail for the stupidest shit. White guy in jail: “Embezzling funds.” Black guy, what are you in jail for: “Socks. Took me $48 worth a’ socks! My feet was feelin’ GOOD.”

Also he was sporting a pretty amazing look back then imo:

http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/172/172390_1_f.jpg

"I wouldn't want a bunch of women voting on my balls or nothing."

carrot top might be funnier than sinbad, . .

Can't even process the underlying assumptions here. Has either of them ever said anything funny?

Rock's classic, BTW. Keen insightl and so gutsy. I LOL'ed so hard when he sarcastically egged-on an audience of largely mainstream pop acts by asking, ''Are you ready for lip-synching? Are you ready for some real lip-synching?,'' before either N'Sync or Brittney Spears performed at the the 1999 MTV VMAs.

http://media.houstonfoodie.com/2008/11/carrot-top.jpg

That's Carrot-Top today? WTF happened to him? He's still v., v. unfunny, I'm sure of that.

rock is totally classic, and those VMA quotes upthread are golden

White rapper Kid Rock: "Take off your thinking cap and lower your standards, it's Kid Rock! ... Kid Rock looks like a substitute pimp ... like the NutraSweet black man."

and I was thinking damn it sucks he hasn't done anything w/ the last decade...until I realized that, duh, he did 'everybody hates chris' which was greattttt.

this guy has so much charisma it's ridiculous.

Both typical and atypical Bamastan rhetoric:

"I'm trying to figure out the right analogy. Everybody wanted Michael Jordan, right? We got Shaq. That's not a disappointment. You know what I mean? We got Charles Barkley. It's still a Hall of Fame career. The president should be graded on jobs and peace, and the other stuff is debatable. Do more people have jobs, and is there more peace? I guess there's a little more peace. Not as much peace as we'd like, but I mean, that's kind of the gig. I don't recall anybody leaving on an up. It's just that kind of job. I mean, the liberals that are against him feel let down because he's not Bush. And the thing about George Bush is that the kid revolutionized the presidency. How? He was the first president who only served the people who voted for him. He literally operated like a cable network. You know what I mean?"

http://www.vulture.com/2014/11/chris-rock-frank-rich-in-conversation.html

He was the first president who only served the people who voted for him.

uh

gtfo w calling Maher a leftist

Seriously, that makes no sense. Dude's still doing "Asian drivers! Amirite?" jokes, ffs.

gtfo w calling Maher a leftist

I'd say he has a career comedian's view of the politcial spectrum.

also the attitude he ascribes to Alan King was more Shecky Greene's.

I kinda can't believe Paramount signed off on such an awful poster for this movie.

Rock indicating that "updating your references" is a key to being a with-it comic sorta indicates to me that while he's very funny at his best, i've always found him a bit hollow compared to the great standups.

That' a great interview. My favourite of the year.

Top Five wasn't as good as the recent Rock interviews/essays, but definitely enjoyable. When Rock refers to it as a "black Annie Hall" I didn't know it really was going to be that: a combo of story/skits/sequences strung together with long sidewalk convos in between.

Seeing this tonight

I was distressed by his acknowledged debt in interviews to the "Before" movies

This was pretty solid.

Yeah I thought it was v good, barring a couple minor false notes. Funny, well constructed and written. Lots of great walk on bits.

some controversy over gay hot-peppers bit

eh didn't bother me. I liked how p much every character you would otherwise expect to be a one-dimensional caricature (the fiancee, the bf on the down low, the "bodyguard") were all given a little extra shading. the phone call w the fiancee was really good, for ex.

what did kind of bug me was that even though Rosario Dawson did a good job w her character, it felt like the script piled a few too many pat, sympathetic characteristics onto her: a a former teen mom from the hood that's been through recovery/AA and is also the lead movie critic for the NYT, with a successful side-gig as a photographer with gallery shows in LA... ok

Wow, stacking the deck there.

what did kind of bug me was that even though Rosario Dawson did a good job w her character, it felt like the script piled a few too many pat, sympathetic characteristics onto her: a a former teen mom from the hood that's been through recovery/AA and is also the lead movie critic for the NYT, with a successful side-gig as a photographer with gallery shows in LA... ok

― Οὖτις, Monday, December 15, 2014 1:36 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, now that you mrention it, there was a lot happening with this character.

Missed this, which is pretty blazing: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/top-five-filmmaker-chris-rock-753223

I will say, as an aside, my best friend is an Ivy League educated black man who has worked with Chris Rock, and he detected a real air of resentment and competition from Rock, who is not traditionally educated but who is really smart and was apparently really insecure when he was around more than one person of color with a top notch college degree.

i try not to think about *that* part of their lives, it's none of my business

Oh my christ you couldn't pay me to read any comments section regarding Chris Rock's Oscars performance. It's almost as if his hosting job was focus tested to maximally stoke the ire of human garbage.

related: the NY Times had a section yesterday where Hollywood pros of color and/or women related Shit They've Heard in the Business, and it's impossible to pick just one... (maybe re Shakespeare "They didn't have black people then," or a producer asking "Do you people kiss your children a lot?")

Here's the piece/quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/24/arts/hollywood-diversity-inclusion.html?ref=arts

WENDELL PIERCE
I was working on “The Gregory Hines Show” that depicted three generations of black men. It was on CBS in 1997. [After] the read-through, the studio and network give notes. Gregory kissed everybody, and so in the show he would kiss his son, Matty. This particular day someone from CBS said: “I notice every time you come in, you kiss Matty. So I wanted to ask, do black people kiss their kids?” That was the most offensive thing I think I’ve ever [heard]. Gregory stood up and said [to the executive]: “Everybody get out. You, come with me.”

did chris rock coin "friend zone" in 'bring the pain' or did that term exist before that bit? i can't find the answer online.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zywIR_ZFLts

ok it was coined on 'friends' a couple of years earlier which is way funnier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pnMWvbFpS8

tambourine is pretty good!

what the world demands to know: how highly does it score on the problematic scale?

last joke was "god shows up when things are bad. god shows up when you get raped in jail and you're in jail for parking tickets"
so there will be think pieces

Oh good

ach that won't cause too much controversy. i was just wondering because it's his post-divorce special after he got taken to the cleaners by the wife he cheated on so i was wondering if things were going to take a turn for the sam kinnison

Eddie Murphy kinda has it covered rly

My friend dug up this blast from the past:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8fDpagpAMI

Check out how it ends ...

the "housewives are smart" bit is gonna ruffle some feathers i suppose; he cops explicitly to being a bad husband and sounds like he's tough to be divorced to as well.

his general relationship advice otherwise strikes me as dead on accurate.

i laughed! I appreciated he ended with prince!

I thought this was ok but kind of a snooze. Found myself half checking out at the end.

His admission of porn addiction definitely makes the crowd uncomfortable and there's a weird lull there, which he doesn't really fill with anything funny. It's very confessional

Yeah it wasn't great

Grace Jones could absolutely have beaten him to death with his own foot

It wasn't peak CR but I enjoyed it and was pretty impressed with how honest he was about the breakdown of his marriage.

Last night I got this bit from years ago stuck in my head and I can't stop thinking about it and laughing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xte-aTS1_6k

The new one was directed by Bo Burnham. I don't usually notice directing in standup specials but it was distracting in a couple of places here, like the extreme closeups when he's talking about his divorce, and a few times when it's obviously a different audience mid-joke, like the front row is all black one minute and all white the next.