Chris Rock: C/D

Chris Rock has to have the best stage prescence of pretty much any comedian - he just stalks the stage. Seems possessed. (granted this seems to be taken from Eddie Murphy to some extent).

including the old 'just do a toothy grin like Eddie and send people into hysterics' trick

this is like saying the Rolling Stone are better than Muddy Waters...

I actually think this too!

no, you're right there isn't - but it is a little weird when you factor "influence" in. Like if you told Murphy he was better than Richard Pryor he would probably look at you like you were out of your mind, he was so key in shaping Murphy's comedy. The lineage just makes it odd (and fwiw, I probly prefer the Stones to RS as well... maybe not tho, Electric Mud slays all competition...hmmm)

I would probably like Chris Rock more if I didn't keep getting him confused with Chris Tucker :(

"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

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'd say that's a familiar trait among comedians.

Probably. But I think what he was pointing out to me was that even Chris Rock limits his hiring of people of color to like one token black guy.

even Chris Rock limits his hiring of people of color to like one token black guy

what are you basing this on

Obviously not in his latest movie.

Also re insecurity, Chris felt comfortable doing this--

http://www.blackcollegewire.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4968

Chris supported a short-lived Howard University based comedy magazine

I thought you'd be discussing his filing for divorce

"Marriage is so tough, Nelson Mandela got divorced -- he got out of jail after 27 years of torture, spent six months with his wife and said, ‘I can’t take this shit no more.'"

what are you basing this on

Per the rest of what you partially quoted, only my friend's based on experience opinion. To be fair, this was maybe 10 years ago.

xpost He mentions the Harvard comedy magazine in that essay I linked. He basically sums its failure up to the students not being independently wealthy enough to doof around. As Rock quips in the essay, at places like Harvard even the broke kids come from money.

top 5 was trash damn

The only thing I remember is Rock looking over all of Dawson's hobbies and making a crack about not wanting to get too good at any one thing. Kinda stung.

Anyone else think his Oscar speech was kind of brilliant? I mean he kept setting up the audience like he was on their side and then socking them again.

wonder what he has against the Smiths, given that Jada Pinkett joke

(i'd have voted her supporting actress for Magic Mike XXL)

I thought he was kind of half-jokingly calling them out for conflating ego with racial justice, maybe?

He was pretty great. He had the platform and he did pretty much what I hoped he'd do with it. Countdown to butthurt conservative backlash in 3...2...

Shaun King wasn't a fan....

is there a link anywhere? this hotel seems to be only getting Cartoon network

Yeah I just read this:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/oscars/king-chris-rocks-oscar-opener-lynching-jokes-went-too-far/ar-BBq8bZs?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp

But I think he's being a little bit literal in his reading. I mean I get his take, but I don't really think Chris Rock was implying that there are no longer "real things to protest about," just that in the 1950s/60s things were SO bad for black people in this country that the Oscars weren't on the radar in the same way. I mean only a minute or two later he had the line about a montage of black people who were shot by the police on the way to the Oscars, so I don't think Rock is being oblivious.

I also get the cringe at a laugh line about grandmothers swinging from trees, but it also struck me as an effective kind of horror/shock moment in a time when jokes about racism (including some famous routines of Chris Rock's) can tend to kind of soothe white audiences and help them forget.

he took a similarly scorching approach in a monologue he did last year (for HBO's Real Sports) on the whitecentric marketing of "nostalgia" by Major League Baseball: "The days of Joe D! The Mick! Emmett Till!"

That baseball piece was amazing.

I know comments sections are usually a cesspool but WOW at the comments on that MSN article.

the comments freak me out more when I think to myself "y'know, someone probably calls this poster 'daddy'."

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.