It was an event.
And everybody knew what he was talking about.
Do you know how rare that is?
I forgot it was tonight until I got a text from Daniel Glass saying he was waiting to see it, it was only ten minutes away.
So I pulled up Netflix and I didn't see it on the homepage, which I found very surprising, but then I searched on Chris's name and found the link and clicked, and even though it was ten minutes before the hour, there was live programming, a pre-game show.
And it was not that the pre-game was so funny, but there was this feeling, that something was going to happen. Anticipation. And we don't get that much in today's society, where if you miss something it's available right thereafter, and forever, online. Adrenaline doesn't pump like it used to. And most of what we anticipate today are the results of elections, trials, Supreme Court decisions. But then nothing really changes we go back to our regular lives. We all feel disconnected and lost.
And no one is speaking to our disconnection, trying to make us feel like we belong, it's endless division, the flames pumped by the media. Did you read that fantastic article about Fox in the "New York Times"?
The headline says it all:
"Inside the Panic at Fox News After the 2020 Election - 'If we hadn’t called Arizona,' said Suzanne Scott, the network’s chief executive, according to a recording reviewed by The New York Times, 'our ratings would have been bigger.':
nyti.ms/3ZmshDs "got the bubble-headed bleached-blonde, comes on at five"
Don Henley wrote that about the local news, but now it's national. They're on Fox.
And you right wingers can tune out right now.
But you tuned into Chris Rock.
That's what's so fascinating. That the denigrated Black man is the one the whites are listening to, the one who cuts across class and racial lines. Chris Rock is for everybody. And he can speak his truth and get away with it. When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. Yes, Chris said he saw himself as broke, even though he was rich.
So the problem today is we don't share the same reference points. Everything is niche. It's not the seventies when SNL made cultural references we all got. Today we don't even know who the host is on SNL, what they're famous for. As for the skits... They have to be really broad, or we don't get them.
But somehow Chris Rock managed to talk about stuff we all knew. Have opinions on. And his job was to thread the needle, and he did.
There was victimhood. My inbox is full of white men complaining that they are victims, being abused. But Chris pointed out they were a majority.
And Chris talked about the women having all the power. That point about Beyonce being able to marry Jay Z if she worked at a Burger King was priceless. And how if Jay Z worked at a Burger King...no way.
But, once again, it wasn't so much the jokes as the subjects. They were what we deal with every day, we knew what he was talking about, we wondered if anybody else felt like we do.
The Kardashian thing, the penalty the paterfamilias paid for getting O.J. off...priceless.
And talking about his rich daughter Lola.
And the delivery... It was intense. Because Chris was amped up, this was his one and only shot. And that's rare these days, where everything is fixed in post, where everybody gets a do-over.
And I'm sitting there thinking how I wouldn't spend an hour and ten minutes watching a live concert, not with the same intensity. And there is a difference between comedy and music, but comedy is more truthful, more visceral than music today. Comedians are not expanding their brands, they're just cracking jokes. They may be on social media networks, but it's always trying to be funny. At most, they're selling tickets. It's just more honest.
This honesty used to be in music. I know I've been harping on this concept. But the point is the cheese moves, and if you can't admit it you're the one left behind.
The king of entertainment today is streaming TV. Period. Nothing else compares. More people have talked to me about "Yellowstone" and its spinoffs than any band. Because there's story, there's that intensity, you can feel life lived.
We are all living, we're looking to find ourselves in media.
And that's what Chris Rock did tonight. It was like he was living in our brain, talking about what not only we, but everybody is thinking but is never really articulated.
Honestly, I don't think it was Chris's best work. That special where he talked about women baking bread in their shoes... I think about it all the time.
And most of these specials have an arc. They tell jokes for a while and then lead to one long story... And this one did too, but not the one we expected it to be.
Chris Rock told the story of the slap. He gave his perspective. He didn't so much defend himself, as fight back. People have no idea how much it hurts to be dissed on a national stage. Even if you get some sympathy, it makes you boil. Because there's no way you can bark back and look good. But you continue to feel the abuse.
So for those who think Chris Rock overdid it with the Will Smith blowback, put yourself in his shoes. Only you can't. But somehow he can put himself in yours.
And this all happened live, on Netflix.
Used to happen on HBO, but Netflix is first and foremost a tech company, and tech companies know you balance the books last. You build an image and get people hooked and... Netflix is the one subscription you need. Who cares if they're running out of potential subscribers, Netflix is the heartbeat of America. And it's churning out product prodigiously. This is not record labels and movie studios releasing ever less product and marketing the hell out of it... Netflix commissions a lot, throws it up against the wall, and some sticks, and you never know exactly what.
But at the end of the day it's the talent.
George Carlin premiered this concept. Well-known comedian goes on cable television and speaks truth and and their words resonate with millions. You see Carlin evolved, he just didn't keep doing the same damn thing. Like too many musicians. Even better, he talked about more serious subjects, that we could all relate to. His last special was not up to par, but you can't hit a grand slam every time out.
Observational comedy... You have a lot of standups doing that.
But material that is vibrant and integral to life, that sheds light on what is going on right in front of our noses, in our brains, that is rare. Because most people blink. They're afraid of offending someone. Or they talk down to the audience. Chris may be rich, but you feel like if you bumped into him you could have a conversation.
And I ain't gonna recite a slew of jokes. But watching there was this feeling like you were in on something. That you got the joke. That you knew what was hip. Like watching the above-mentioned SNL in the seventies.
Chris even made a couple of mistakes, but that added to the effect. Made the special human as opposed to a sleek product, like comping vocals on a big budget record.
Something happened tonight. And you can watch it tomorrow, but it won't have the same effect.
This is what we're now looking for, something palpable, something now, something real.
And sports provide this.
But not everybody is interested in sports. The Super Bowl is a license to party, the game is secondary.
But when comedy is done right it's for everybody.
Chris rock did it right tonight.
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