Chris Rock gets candid about the importance of forgiveness in a world so quick to cancel others.
Appearing recently on “The Daily” podcast, the 61-year-old comedian discussed his issues “with sophistication” and said that it’s great to advocate for and give a voice to marginalized people, but it has to come with forgiveness.
“The problem with wokeness is that we are in the Old Testament right now,” he said. “And the Old Testament has no forgiveness. The Old Testament didn’t work. So they had to write a remix called the New Testament.”
Host David Marchese then asked if there was “anything redemptive” to come out of the post-George Floyd era, calling it “awakening 1.0” as Democratic politicians now appear to be moving further away from that ideology.
The “Adults” star reiterated his view that “it’s great to help those who need help,” but noted that the problem comes when you “institutionalize it.”
“Salem is on a witch hunt. I’m pretty sure the first three witches they caught were actually witches,” he said. “But then you open a witch office and now you have to start lying. Now you have to f— make up because you’re burdened. You have to justify witch hunters getting pensions and– – -.”
He explained that just because he advocates forgiveness “does not mean condoning abusive behavior.” You can scold your friends, she said, adding that holding them accountable is “also part of friendship.”
“If you only be friends with your friends when they’re nice, they won’t be your friends,” he said.
While he acknowledged there is room for improvement when it comes to cancel culture and wokeness, he stated that he was “glad that this all happened” as it allowed some voices to be heard that might otherwise have gone unheard.
Kaivan Shroff, a former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer, disagreed with Rock, telling Fox News Digital that the comedian “oversimplified this in a very self-serving way.”
“Sometimes the problem isn’t that people ‘take a joke out of context.’ Often the context is very clear and the comedian knows exactly who the joke is aimed at, knows that many people will find it offensive, and relies on that discomfort to make the material feel edgy or viral,” Shroff said. “You can’t use anger as part of the action and then act shocked when the anger comes.”
Rock is currently promoting her new movie, “Misty Green,” which she wrote, directed, and stars in.
The film follows award-winning actress Misty Green, who works hard to make a comeback after years of watching her career slowly fade away. Rock plays a casting director who once worked with the actor.
“I’m really interested in expiration dates. I have a lot of friends who are in their 50s or whatever, and there’s one thing everyone tells you: ‘You can make art forever.’ “And that’s absolutely not true,” he said. “And in a lot of show business, it’s like you have to reach a certain level within a certain amount of time or you’re going to get in trouble. So yeah, Misty is turning 40 and there’s a little bit of an expiration date coming up there. I wanted to make a movie about Hollywood. I wanted to make a movie about the expiration dates that we all have.”
He also said that he wanted to make a film about Los Angeles, calling it “a tale of two cities”, noting that although there was “sunshine and palm trees”, people were also “always walking over homeless people”.
The actor has previously spoken about the message he wanted to send while making the film, telling Variety in September that a big part of the film was about Los Angeles; He called Los Angeles a “complicated place” that “suffers an underbelly that people want to pretend doesn’t exist.”
“Many of those involved with LALA have very risky priorities,” he said. “There’s a real estate office on the same street as The Ivy on Robertson, and there are $30-40 million homes in the window. In the window. But there’s a homeless man sleeping right outside. The movie is about this crazy dilemma.”