Matt Rife has responded to backlash following a domestic abuse joke in his new Netflix special. (Getty/Rich Schultz)
US comedian Matt Rife has offered a pitiful response to those who criticised the joke he made about domestic abuse during his Netflix special.
Following the likes of Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais, the TikTok star released his Netflix stand-up show last week, claiming that it holds “nothing back” in terms of risqué content.
However, some viewers were particularly upset about the opening “joke” on Natural Selection, during which Rife described spotting a waitress with a black eye while in Baltimore.
“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’.”
The sexist quip implied that had the woman been able to cook, she wouldn’t have experienced domestic abuse.
In response to a major backlash about the joke, the comic shared an Instagram story post with his 6.4 million followers.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the post claimed to link to an apology.
“If you’ve ever been offended by a joke I’ve told, here’s a link to my official apology,” he wrote. The link took fans to a website selling helmets for people with special needs.
After making the joke during the special, Rife told the audience that he was trying to work out whether they were “fun”, adding: “Figured we start the show with domestic violence, the rest of the show should be pretty smooth sailing.”
It’s not the first time that the influencer and comedian has caused controversy, with some of the critics of his sexist joke reminding social media users that he once touched Spider-Man star Zendaya’s face without her consent.
During a 2015 episode of Wild ‘N Out, Rife was challenged to make Zendaya laugh while she had a mouthful of water, but he put his hands on her chin when she failed to even chuckle. In response, his co-stars urged him not to “touch her face”.
Earlier this year, he also went viral for suggesting that being “physically attractive” wasn’t helping his career, as “you have to win people over more often”.