Adam Sandler has revealed he didn’t think Chris Rock went too far with his jokes about Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.
The 50 First Dates star has reflected on the comedian’s recent Netflix comedy special Selective Outrage where he addressed last year’s Oscars slap and the fallout from the controversial incident.
Asked if Rock went too far with the special, the 56-year-old actor told PEOPLE magazine: ‘Never thought that in my life. I thought it was unbelievably relaxed, funny, thoughtful. Crushed it and was real to himself.’
He even claimed the stand up special was as big a moment as the Super Bowl, and he ‘immediately’ tuned in for a second viewing.
He added: ‘And it was as exciting to watch as when the Super Bowl is on. I thought about it all weekend. ‘All right, Rock is doing his thing tonight!’
+6
View gallery
Honest: Adam Sandler has revealed he didn’t think Chris Rock went too far with his jokes about Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith
+6
View gallery
Awkward: The 50 First Dates star has reflected on the comedian’s recent Netflix comedy special Selective Outrage where he addressed last year’s Oscars slap and the fallout from the controversial incident
‘Saturday, watched it in my kitchen, laughed my a** off, immediately watched it right after. It was one of the best experiences. I thought it was amazing.’
During the special, Chris referenced Jada’s 2020 admission she had had an ‘entanglement’ with singer August Alsina while she and her husband were on a break, a revelation the pair later discussed on her Red Table Talk show.
The comedian said: ‘Will Smith practices selective outrage. Everybody that really knows knows I had nothing to do with that s***. I didn’t have any ‘entanglements.’
Chris claimed ‘everybody in the world’ called Will ‘a b****’ after the ‘entanglement’ revelation and said he tried to get in touch with him but the actor didn’t pick up.
Repeatedly branding the star a ‘b****’, he quipped: ‘Everybody. And who’s he hit? Me, a n**** he knows he can beat. That is some b****-a** s***.’
Rock’s special addressed cancel culture, and Sandler also weighed in on whether cancel culture is hurting modern comedy.
However, he replied: ‘I don’t know. The comedy I’m watching right now, I’m loving.’
Meanwhile, Sandler’s friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alumni Rob Schneider also praised Rock’s special.
+6
View gallery
Oh dear: The infamous slap occurred in March 2022 when Rock took the stage to present an Oscar for best documentary feature
Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at Oscars after joke about Jada
+6
View gallery
Questions: Asked if Rock went too far with the special, the 56-year-old actor told PEOPLE magazine: ‘Never thought that in my life. I thought it was unbelievably funny, thoughtful’
+6
View gallery
Unkind: Turning to the Smith’s, he said that he was ‘looking forward’ to seeing Pinkett-Smith in G.I. Jane, poking fun at her shaved head
He told the outlet: ‘He’s outrageous. He’s incredible. He really does set the bar.
‘He’s able to take really complex societal ideas and make them hilarious and bring us on board to some place of sanity, some place of reason. He’s so hilariously reasonable.
‘He subverts us to his point of view, and that’s his genius. And modern comedy changed after Chris Rock, truthfully, 25 years ago.’
The infamous slap occurred in March 2022 when Rock took the stage to present an Oscar for best documentary feature.
Turning to the Smith’s, he said that he was ‘looking forward’ to seeing Pinkett-Smith in G.I. Jane, poking fun at her shaved head.
Smith immediately got up on stage and slapped Chris in the side of his head. After returning to his front row seat, he yelled, ‘Keep my wife’s mother f***ing name out your mouth.’
In the weeks that followed, the actor was forced to resign from the Academy, which subsequently banned him for 10 years.
