Michael Jackson's nephew has criticized Chris Rock's latest standup special, thanking Will Smith for slapping the comedian during last year's Oscars.
Taj Jackson, 49, has hit out at Rock, 58, following the comedian's latest Netflix special Selective Outrage.
For some quick context, the slapping incident occurred last year when Rock was asked to present an award at the 2022 Oscars. While on the stage, he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head, quipping: "Jada, I love ya! G.I. Jane 2 - can't wait to see it."
Despite the Men in Black star appearing to initially laugh at the joke, his wife looked very unimpressed - which led to Smith storming the stage and slapping Rock in the face.
Rock discussed this in his latest stand-up routine, saying that Smith's anger really had nothing to do with him. "Everybody knows what the f**k happened," Rock said, adding that he "had nothing to do with that". He continued: "For people that don’t know, well everybody knows, but Will Smith’s wife was f***ing her son’s friend. Okay? I normally would not talk about this s**t, but, for some reason, they put it on the internet."
Rock was, of course, referencing the 2020 episode of Red Table Talk when Jada and Will discussed her "entanglement" with rapper August Alsina.
Also throughout the special, Rock made jabs at other celebrities including Meghan Markle and Michael Jackson. In fact, he compared R. Kelly (who is serving 31 years in prison for charges relating to child pornography and sexual abuse) to Michael Jackson (whose career was marked by accusations of child sexual abuse).
"The thing I have a problem with is the selective outrage. You know what I'm talking about. One person does something, they get canceled. Somebody else does the exact same thing, nothing," Rock said. "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."
Obviously, Taj Jackson was unimpressed with the joke. Taking to Twitter, he 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."
He continued: "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 3 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? 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 [sic]."
Many users supported the tweet, with one person writing: "What he said and has said about Michael Jackson is ignorant and not right... A lot of the other stuff he said last night was pretty on point though [...] Just wish he'd look in the mirror regarding his own Selective Outrage."