Chris Rock has been called out for a joke he made on latest Netflix comedy special Tambourine.
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In the show, the comedian comments on gun crime and school shootings, saying that he wants to live in a world where 'an equal amount of white kids are shot every month', with more 'white mothers on TV crying' - and an isolated clip of that quote has gone viral.
However, the already-problematic joke has been the subject of extremely unfortunate timing, as Tambourine was released at midnight on Wednesday - just hours before a massacre at a high school in Florida, which left 17 dead.
In the extended routine, Rock's satirical intentions are more apparent.
"Here's my question," he says. "You would think that cops would occasionally shoot a white kid just to make it look good. You would think every couple of months they'd look at their dead n**** calendar and go, 'Oh my God, we're up to 16! We gotta shoot a white kid quick!'"
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He then continues: "I wanna live in a world with real equality. I want to live in a world where an equal amount of white kids are shot every month. I wanna see white mothers on TV, crying, standing next to [civil rights activist] Al Sharpton, talkin' about, 'We need justice for Chad.'"
Later in the routine, the 53-year-old adds: "Whenever a cop guns down an innocent black man, they call the cop a 'bad apple'... that's a lovely name for 'murderer'."
The context that the tragic shooting has given Rock's musings has not been missed by viewers, who have been quick to criticise Rock on social media, with many also saying that they would be cancelling their subscription to Netflix in protest.
Some other people, however, have defended the comedian - either from the perspective of him raising important issues about race and gun crime, or just believing it's just a joke and that the very nature of comedy is to provoke.
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The Florida shooting that took place earlier last week shook the US - and the world - after suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz, who was known for his troubling Instagram posts, burst into the school carrying an AR-15 assault rifle.
Data collected by gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety showed that the shooting was the 18th in the 45 full days of 2018 so far. That's an average of one every 60 hours, or two and a half days.
"This gun shit ain't going nowhere," Rock also says in the show. "There ain't never gonna be no gun control. You talk about it too long, and you're gonna get shot."
Rather than gun control, Rock makes the suggestion that bullets should cost $5,000 so that we have what he dubbed 'bullet control'.
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"People would think before they killed somebody if a bullet cost $5,000," he said.
Featured Image Credit: NetflixTopics: Florida, Comedy, Netflix, Chris Rock