Netflix corrects Chris Rock comedy special to remove Will Smith joke he messed up

Netflix has edited out a moment from Chris Rock's recent comedy special Selective Outrage where he messed up a joke about Will Smith.

The comedian's latest stand up show was streamed on Netflix and naturally, there was time dedicated to talking about that infamous moment at the Oscars where Will Smith slapped him in the face.

It's the first time Rock has spoken at length about what I guess we're calling 'slapgate', and he addressed why he also didn't try to hit Smith back after being struck in the face.

There were plenty of jokes in the show about Smith, though due to the perils of live comedy Rock did mess up some of them.

At one point, he claimed that the beef between himself and the Smiths had been started back in 2016 by Jada Pinkett Smith since Will hadn't been nominated for Concussion.

However, the comedian accidentally got the film wrong and said Will Smith had been snubbed over another movie instead, catching himself mid-joke and admitting he screwed up the delivery.

Netflix

He joked: "Years ago, his wife said I should quit the Oscars. I shouldn't host 'cause her man didn't get nominated for Emancipation.

"The biggest piece of s**t ever. Okay, so the n****r gives me a f**king concussion. No, not Emancipation, I f**ked up the joke. Concussion."

However, it looks like Netflix was on hand to edit out the error, and viewers have noticed that the slip-up has been dealt with.

The editing fix was pointed out by Vulture's Jesse David Fox, who said it 'makes one wonder if there has been other tweaks', while someone else said they'd have 'kept it as it is' and compared it to George Lucas going back and changing Star Wars to cram in more CGI.

Another person said it took 'balls' to record a live comedy special on one of the world's biggest streaming platforms, claiming Rock was 'amazing' and 'f**king up the Concussion joke is the reason why nobody does this'.

Netflix

This isn't the only time during Selective Outrage that Rock messed up when talking about one of Smith's movies, as elsewhere in the comedy special he quipped that he wouldn't have hit the actor back.

Explaining that Smith was 'significantly bigger than me', he joked that the difference in toughness continued even into their animated movies as 'I'm a zebra, he's a f**king shark'.

People were quick to point out that in the movie he was talking about, 2004's Shark Tale, Will Smith actually played a fish that pretended to beat up sharks and ultimately ended up working at a carwash.

And Rock actually played a zebra who was keen for a life of freedom outside of a New York zoo in the 2005 film Madagascar.

Kids movies can sound kind of weird when you just write out what actually happens.

LADbible has contacted Netflix for comment.

Topics: Chris Rock, Will Smith, TV and Film, Netflix, Celebrity

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker