Michael Jackson’s nephew has thanked Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
Taj Jackson criticised the comedian’s latest Netflix special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage after he made a joke where he compares Michael Jackson to disgraced singer R. Kelly.
In September, Kelly was found guilty of six counts of child pornography and sexual abuse. He’s currently serving a 31-year prison sentence for his crimes.
Michael Jackson faced many child sexual abuse allegations during his career. In 2005, he was found not guilty of molesting a teenage boy at his Neverland ranch.
Posting about the Netflix special on Twitter, Taj wrote: “Chris Rock has used my family as punching bags for his entire career. Yet I am supposed to feel bad for him getting slapped and humiliated on the Oscars.
“After seeing a new clip of him attacking my dead uncle in the first minutes of his ‘Retaliation – I’m still relevant’ special, I have three things to say. 1. What did my family ever do to you to warrant these decades of harassment and your constant bullying disguise as jokes?
Chris Rock has used my family as punching bags for his entire career.
Yet I am supposed to feel bad for him getting slapped and humiliated on the Oscars.
After seeing a new clip of him attacking my dead uncle in the first minutes of his “Retaliation-I’m still relevant ”special,… https://t.co/r8dNZUZ5fr— Taj Jackson (@tajjackson3) March 6, 2023
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“2. Just because you were bullied early on in life doesn’t give you the excuse to bully others now. 3. Thank you Will Smith.”
In the special, Rock says: “The thing I have a problem with is the selective outrage. You know what I’m talking about. One person does something, they get cancelled. Somebody else does the exact same thing, nothing.
“You know what I’m talking about, like the kind of people that play Michael Jackson songs, but won’t play R Kelly. Same crime, one of them just got better songs.”
Elsewhere in the special, Rock addressed the Oscars slap and said he “wasn’t a victim” in the ordeal. “Everybody knows it happened. I got smacked a year ago. I got smacked at the Oscars by this motherfucker. And people are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts. I’ve got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ear.”