Chris Rock vs. WOKE culture in Netflix special?

If you’ve been keeping up with pop culture, you’ve likely heard of the controversy Chris Rock has stirred up with his Netflix special, "Selective Outrage."

Lauren Chen, host of "Pseudo Intellectual," covered the special last week. Chris Rock has been bashed by the left and praised by the right, but Chen suggests a more tempered approach.

“If you ask me, I watched the entire special, it’s neither as right-wing or as left-wing as people are saying,” Chen said.

“Yes, Chris Rock does make fun of what you might call ‘social justice warriors,’” Chen continued. "He has some … jokes about being triggered and offensive … but, overall, when you actually look at the jokes Chris Rock is making, he is still very much toeing the left-wing party line.”

Noting that Rock took aim at cancel culture in his special, Chen points out that that does not mean he is conservative. In fact, he even calls Republicans liars at points in the show.

However, Rock did have several memorable moments, taking shots at Meghan Markle, abortion, and Will Smith.

Rock knocked Meghan Markle’s entitled and hyper-offended attitude. He wondered why she was complaining so much when she seemed to have won the “light-skinned lottery” because, you know, she’s a member of the royal family now.

Chen then touched on Rock’s abortion jokes, saying, “The core of [the] jokes was that ‘yeah abortion is evil and killing a baby, but it should still be ok.’ And I think it’s important to reiterate that Chris Rock said abortion should still be ok.”

Finally, Chen discussed the "slap heard around the world." Of course, everyone wanted to hear Rock’s perspective on the infamous Oscar’s slap he received from Will Smith.

“Words hurt,” Rock said. “Anybody who says words hurt has never been punched in the face.”

Chen discussed Will and Jada Smith’s relationship dynamic and how the slap was likely fueled by suspected emotional abuse.

“Jada Pinkett is a cheater and I would say there's definitely good cause to say an emotionally abusive woman,” Chen said.

Chen concluded with some final thoughts.

“This special is not as funny … as something like Dave Chapelle would put out, but it’s also not … groundbreaking … Chris Rock did not go far enough to make it something novel … If you’re someone on the right thinking he’s our guy, he’s not.”

Watch the full video below:

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