Comic faces backlash
Matt Rife inflamed social media critics Tuesday for his “apology” on Instagram that he shared after facing backlash to a joke in his new Netflix comedy special.
In the special, Matt Rife: Natural Selection, released last week, Rife opened with a bit that centred on what he called a “ratchet” restaurant in Baltimore. He told the audience: “I've only been to Baltimore one time. I ate lunch there, and the hostess who seats you at the restaurant had a black eye.
“A full black eye. It wasn't like, `What happened?'
“It was pretty obvious what happened,” he said during the special, which was filmed in Washington, in a joke that many said was a reference to victims of domestic violence.
“We couldn't get over the fact, like, this is the face of the company?
“This is who you have greeting people?”
He then joked that his friend said the restaurant should “put her in the kitchen, so nobody has to see her face,” to which Rife said he responded, “I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn't have that black eye.” In the special, he said the joke was meant to gauge the audience's humour level, explaining that the rest of the show would be “smooth sailing.”
The reaction was anything but smooth on social media, with many deeming the joke offensive to victims, while others said Rife's words were demeaning to women and misogynistic. Tiktok user Drew Afualo posted two videos critiquing Rife, saying he was upsetting his largely female audience.
On Monday night, Rife responded to the backlash on his Instagram Story.
“If you've ever been offended by a joke I've told — here's a link to my official apology,” he wrote, with a link that led to a website that sells helmets to protect against seizures, head trauma and head banging.
Many social media users criticized his apology, too. Tiktok user Samantha Fekete's critique of Rife, in which she slams the comedian for doubling down on an offensive joke through his apology, has more than four million views.
“If he was upset that people were offended by his jokes, he could have just not said something,” Fekete said on Tiktok.
Representatives for Rife and Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.