Chris Rock all but ignores the slap during first return to the scene of the crime this past week. He was doing his stand-up at the Laugh Factory in LA on the same night he was forced to cancel a scheduled appearance the following day, for fear of another violent outburst from his fans. The cancellations of his appearances followed the release of his stand-up special. That special was cut down as well from two hours to just an hour. And with it came the predictable backlash from his fans on his now-deleted Twitter account. He then gave a shoutout to every one of his fans who went “on a witch’s broom” and posted another rant against the press and the media.
By his own admission, his only purpose for appearing at the Laugh Factory was to tell the audience—the same audience he invited to his other shows—exactly how he truly feels about the media. He then went on a “sickeningly diatribe” against the media and all of the negative coverage he’s received from them. He then told the audience that it was okay for him to be upset with the news media. He told the audience that he doesn’t blame the press for doing their job, but when they get it wrong, he does.
The thing is, none of this seemed to really matter to the audience, or a sizable portion of his hardcore fans, who proceeded to cheer him on.
And if you’re a fan, you knew that would happen—didn’t you? That’s because the media has been out to get Rock for years. Back in the summer of 2012, he was getting on a plane with his mother for a trip to Ireland to visit his dad, who was sick. While the plane was taxiing, a woman boarded the plane wearing a white T-shirt with a black arrow pointing downward. It was a message from the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Of course, at the time, no one really knew who she was.
The woman left the plane, but shortly after, another woman boarded the plane wearing a yellow star on a shirt that said, “I Am Legend.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Rock, a