Mike Otherz
All Star
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/10/duke-doubt
great piece by kelefa sanneh, anyway, he has some quotes on a set he did about ray rice and chris brown. here is an excerpt. c/s this by the way.
There was plenty: a long bit about religion and a short one about bullying, and also a withering take on the alleged coolness of President Obama. “Obama’s, like, cool compared to other politicians—but not as cool as actual cool people,” he said. “Like, Miles Davis would kick Obama in the fukkin’ teeth!” Someone suggested that he say something about the new iPhone, but Rock preferred to consider Ray Rice and Chris Brown, two of the many celebrities who have been caught behaving badly in the years since Rock last toured. “People say there’s no reason to ever hit a woman,” he said. “No—there’s no reason to ever hit a woman first. You can hit a woman back—shyt, if Oprah hit me I’d knock her the fukk out!” The absurd image gave the crowd permission to laugh at an idea that it didn’t necessarily endorse, and Rock pressed on, recalling the media coverage of Brown’s assault on Rihanna, who was then his girlfriend. “No one ever asked the question ‘Who hit first?’ ” he said. “Best journalists in the world, not one asked the question. ‘It’s not important.’ Yes, it is! It’s the most important question on earth.”
The laughter was dying down. “The United States bombed fukkin’ Japan,” he said. “We killed so many people—like, twelve 9/11s on one day. Because they hit first,” he said. “We’re bombing up Syria—they cut off two people’s heads!” His voice was getting higher and more insistent—he sounded about seventy per cent earnest. “We’re going to kill hundreds of thousands of people! And it’s O.K.!” He got quiet, and the laughter returned, as the audience warmed to the punch line: “Because they hit first.”
great piece by kelefa sanneh, anyway, he has some quotes on a set he did about ray rice and chris brown. here is an excerpt. c/s this by the way.
There was plenty: a long bit about religion and a short one about bullying, and also a withering take on the alleged coolness of President Obama. “Obama’s, like, cool compared to other politicians—but not as cool as actual cool people,” he said. “Like, Miles Davis would kick Obama in the fukkin’ teeth!” Someone suggested that he say something about the new iPhone, but Rock preferred to consider Ray Rice and Chris Brown, two of the many celebrities who have been caught behaving badly in the years since Rock last toured. “People say there’s no reason to ever hit a woman,” he said. “No—there’s no reason to ever hit a woman first. You can hit a woman back—shyt, if Oprah hit me I’d knock her the fukk out!” The absurd image gave the crowd permission to laugh at an idea that it didn’t necessarily endorse, and Rock pressed on, recalling the media coverage of Brown’s assault on Rihanna, who was then his girlfriend. “No one ever asked the question ‘Who hit first?’ ” he said. “Best journalists in the world, not one asked the question. ‘It’s not important.’ Yes, it is! It’s the most important question on earth.”
The laughter was dying down. “The United States bombed fukkin’ Japan,” he said. “We killed so many people—like, twelve 9/11s on one day. Because they hit first,” he said. “We’re bombing up Syria—they cut off two people’s heads!” His voice was getting higher and more insistent—he sounded about seventy per cent earnest. “We’re going to kill hundreds of thousands of people! And it’s O.K.!” He got quiet, and the laughter returned, as the audience warmed to the punch line: “Because they hit first.”
