Chris Rock is under fire for joking about the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson in relation to his altercation with Will Smith at the Oscars earlier this year.
During the Phoenix, Arizona, leg of his stand-up tour over the weekend, Rock revealed that the Academy had approached him to host the Oscars next year, which he declined. The Academy declined to comment when approached by The Independent.
Rock told his audience that returning to the awards ceremony would be like asking Nicole Brown Simpson “to go back to the restaurant”.
Brown Simpson was murdered after leaving her glasses at a restaurant in 1995. Both she and 25-year-old restaurant waiter Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles.
Her ex-husband, former professional American football player OJ Simpson, was accused of both killings but later acquitted of all charges. In a civil lawsuit in 1997, he was found liable for both deaths and paid $33.5 million in damages to the Goldmans.
After news of Rock’s Oscars refusal was picked up by news outlets, many took issue with his joke about Brown Simpson’s death.
“The more Chris Rock talks, the more you begin to see why Will Smith smacked fire outta him,” one tweet with 16,000 likes read.
