Chris Rock compares Oscar incident to Nicole Brown Simpson murder, angers netizens

Comedian Chris Rock has found himself in the middle of another controversy, this time on the receiving end. During his stand-up gig in Phoenix on Sunday, Chris Rock compared the incident of Will Smith slapping him to the gruesome murder of Nicole Brown Smith.

The comments angered netizens who slammed the 57-year-old comedian for his insensitive comments. Chris Rock said to his audience that he was invited by the Academy to host the 2023 Oscars, to which he declined. However, the controversy began when Chris said that returning to the Oscars would be like asking Nicole Brown Simpson to return to the restaurant to grab her eyeglasses before being brutally murdered.

For the uninitiated, Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered by her former husband, O.J. Simpson, two years after their divorce. The former professional American football player supposedly stabbed his ex-wife to death, along with her friend Ron Goldman, in her Los Angeles home. The trial for the murder turned out to be the most high-profile case of the 20th century, which eventually led to the conviction of O.J. Simpson.


As soon as his comments went viral on social media, users slammed Chris for comparing the two incidents. Some users went to the extent of saying that he deserved the infamous slap from Will Smith. Will Smith slapped Chris Rock during the latter’s presentation at the Academy Awards 2022 after the comedian made a joke about Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, for being bald. Jada suffers from alopecia, and Chris joked that she was becoming G.I. Jane.


Another user wrote that the more Chris Rock talks, the more the people could see why Will slapped him. Users sarcastically slammed Chris for “caring about violence against women.” Photo-journo Gregory Anderson suggested that Ron Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, should slap Chris Rock for his “bad joke.”

On the other hand, one user tried to point out the “hypocrisy” of those slamming Chris Rock for his objectionable joke. The user wrote that the “hypocrites” defended Chris when he got slapped when he insulted an alive black woman but are now slamming him for insulting a dead white woman.