Rock has been working on new stand-up material about Smith’s Oscar’s slap, and he joked that he watched Emancipation to see him get whipped.
Ahead of his live stand-up performance on Netflix this Saturday, Rock played a number of shows where he joked about the moment he got hit by Smith at the 94th Academy Awards last year. “The thing people wanna know…did it hurt? Hell yeah, it hurt,” he was quoted as saying at one gig. “He played Muhammad Ali! I played Pookie [in New Jack City]. Even in animated movies, I’m a zebra, he’s a fucking shark. I got hit so hard, I heard ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.”
One joke, however, stands out. “The other day, I watched Emancipation just so I could watch him getting whipped,” Rock reportedly said, per the New York Post.
It remains to be seen if the material will make it into the live stand-up special when it streams on March 4, but it’s clear Rock is ready to make references to the infamous moment, which resulted in Smith getting banned from the Oscars.