Comedian Matt Rife hit with backlash over response to people offended by Netflix special joke

A comedian has been hit with a double wave of backlash over a joke he made in a recent Netflix special.

In his recent comedy special released on Netflix titled Natural Selection, Matt Rife opened the show with a joke which was slammed as sexist and making light of domestic violence by critics.

He said: "I've only been to Baltimore one time, and the hostess who seats you had a black eye - a full black eye.

"It wasn't like, 'What happened?' It was pretty obvious what happened. But we couldn't get over, like, this is the face of the company? This is who you have greeting people?

"And my boy, who I was with, was like: 'Yeah, I feel bad for her, man, I feel like they should put her in the kitchen or something where nobody has to see her face.'

"And I was like: 'Yeah, but I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn't have that black eye.'"

Instagram/@mattrife

Some members of the crowd didn't find the joke particularly funny and Rife responded by saying he'd been 'testing the water, seeing if y'all are going to be fun or not'.

"I figured we start the show with domestic violence, the rest of the show should be pretty smooth sailing," Rife said of the audience's reaction to his joke.

"Of course I felt bad for her. She should have had her protection crystals, you know what I mean?"

Plenty of critics poured scorn on Rife for the joke, with people saying it was 'disrespectful' and 'offensive'.

The comedian's response to critics was to make a post on his Instagram account saying he'd link to an 'official apology' for anyone who'd been offended by his jokes.

Clicking the link would take you through to a site which sold helmets for people with special needs.

medicaleshop.com

This resulted in another wave of backlash from people who said there was 'a difference between an edgy joke and just being disrespectful and distasteful'.

"Oh good. Ableism to chase the misogyny," someone else said of Rife's response to criticism of his joke.

Rife has previously come in for a backlash on some of his comments, with remarks about women's bodies on an episode of the Stiff Socks podcast panned.

The comedian later told the New York Times that he found the reaction to him 'insane'.

He said: "You’re mad at somebody that’s just trying to make you laugh? That’s such an insane concept to me."

LADbible has contacted Matt Rife for comment.

Topics: Netflix, TV and Film

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