staywild23
Premium Member
Ok, so admittedly I did not watch the Chris Rock special on Netflix and have no intention of watching it. I actually don't even care that much to dissect it. However, for those who aren't in the know, basically Chris Rock made a joke about how people have "selective outrage" in that they will still listen to Michael Jackson music, while banning R Kelly's music for "the same crime" or something to that effect, simply because MJ's music is better. While it's obviously upsetting to have this kind of a joke thrown around casually in 2023, most of the discourse around this special seems centered on the Chris Rock/Will Smith debacle last year. I haven't seen too much written about the MJ joke. I'm off Twitter now, but I did do some public Twitter searches to get a general vibe and from what I've seen (in that very brief exploration, mind you) all of the widely circulated tweets about Chris Rock and MJ are pro-MJ. So that's cool.
The main reason I wanted to start this thread, however, is to share what I thought was an interesting review in a very mainstream publication.
In this NPR review of the Chris Rock special, the author Eric Deggans writes, "Some jokes just felt a little odd – like complaining about selective outrage by people who dance to songs by Michael Jackson but won't play songs by R. Kelly, who – unlike Jackson – is alive and was actually convicted in court of sex crimes."
This is the only mention of MJ in the review, but I think that's a really good thing. A few years ago, right after LN, NPR published an article dissecting if we should still be listening to MJ and it was all very dramatic, from what I recall. Heavy on the guilt stance. So I see this change in narrative in a mainstream, respected publication, however slight it may seem, to be a very positive sign. From everything I've seen, this is not the perspective that would have been offered 4 years ago.
The main reason I wanted to start this thread, however, is to share what I thought was an interesting review in a very mainstream publication.
In this NPR review of the Chris Rock special, the author Eric Deggans writes, "Some jokes just felt a little odd – like complaining about selective outrage by people who dance to songs by Michael Jackson but won't play songs by R. Kelly, who – unlike Jackson – is alive and was actually convicted in court of sex crimes."
This is the only mention of MJ in the review, but I think that's a really good thing. A few years ago, right after LN, NPR published an article dissecting if we should still be listening to MJ and it was all very dramatic, from what I recall. Heavy on the guilt stance. So I see this change in narrative in a mainstream, respected publication, however slight it may seem, to be a very positive sign. From everything I've seen, this is not the perspective that would have been offered 4 years ago.