Why does it all make sense? Well, let’s put it this way — Matt Rife isn’t exactly the most popular at the moment thanks to a controversial “joke” about domestic abuse in his new Netflix special.
In the special, he speaks about taking a flight where the air stewardess had a black eye.
“A full black eye. It wasn’t like, ‘What happened?’ It was pretty obvious what happened,” he said. “But we couldn’t get over, like, this is the face of the company? This is who you have greeting people?”
He went on, “And my boy, who I was with, was like, ‘Yeah, I feel bad for her, man, I feel like they should put her in the kitchen or something where nobody has to see her face.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn’t have that black eye.’”
Mathieu Bitton
Unsurprisingly, the tasteless comments drew a lot of backlash.
The charity Women’s Aid even chimed in condemning Rife, writing, “Domestic abuse is no joke. Conversation about @mattrife shows many people do not understand the severity of domestic abuse, & the impact these ‘jokes’ have on women feeling able to reach out for support. The shocking truth is 3 women a fortnight are killed by their partner or ex.”
To make matters worse, Rife made a yet another off-colour joke in his (fake) apology.
In an Instagram story, the comedian wrote, “If you’ve ever been offended by a joke I’ve told, here’s a link to my official apology,” next to a link with the text, “Tap to solve the issue.” The link led to a health website that sells “special needs helmets”.
His comments and apology are deeply insensitive and, as Women’s Aid notes, potentially actively harmful.
So, what does Zendaya have to do with all of this? Well, it seems that many people are now viewing the old clip of the pair on Wild ‘N Out as ‘proof’ of Rife’s sexist brand of comedy. Perhaps we all should have seen it coming sooner.