The 28-year-old comedian receives backlash online after opening his first special domestic violence joke in his Netflix special titled 'Natural Selection'.
- Nov 21, 2023
AceShowbiz - Comedian Matt Rife came under fire after making controversial jokes during his Netflix special, "Natural Selection". The 28-year-old comedian received backlash after opening his first special domestic violence joke.
In his opening set, which was set in a Baltimore restaurant, Matt talked about a hostess that had a black eye. His friend then wondered aloud why she was not moved to the kitchen away from customers. Matt told his friend, "Yeah, but I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn't have that black eye." The joke earned laughter from the crowd at Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall, which has a capacity of 3,000 people.
Matt also suggested that his other jokes would be much worse. He told the crowd that he was "just testing the waters, seeing if y'all are gonna be fun or not… I figure if we start the show with domestic violence, the rest of the show should be smooth sailing."
Internet users quickly took to social media to put Matt on blast. " 'to see if you are fun or not' if I need to put up with jokes about being punched in the face for not being a good enough servant, then I'm completely unbothered if you don't find me 'fun,' " one wrote on X. "A man peacocking for other men??? Shocking!" someone else said.
"He's told some pretty seedy 'jokes' on TikTok but I feel like one of the things you never play around with is Domestic violence or R*pe jokes there are 10,000 ways to be funny and those are not one of them," another said.
Speaking to Variety, Matt recently said that his fanbase is now a "50/50" split even though it was initially dominated by women due to his TikTok virality. He said that's evidenced at his shows, which are replete with couples and groups of men.
"And that's one thing that I wanted to tackle in this special was showing people that despite what you think about me online, I don't pander my career to women. I would argue this special is way more for guys," he said.
He continued, "I wanted to make this special for everybody. I pride myself on making my comedy for everybody. It's not for a specific demographic. I think if people would just give it the chance without going into it and being like, 'Oh, only girls like him,' or 'People only like his face.' If you give it an opportunity, I think you'd like it."
