Chris Rock Loses Movie Role Over Michael Vick Comment
Chris Rock's comments supporting Michael Vick seem to have cost him a plum movie role. According to Badrap Blog, via Contactmusic.com, Rock made comments defending Vick on the The Jay Leno Show: "What the hell did Michael Vick do? Pitbulls ain't (sic) even real dogs! Dogs have never been good to black people!" But Rock was up for the lead role in a movie about the life of Richard Pryor, and Pryor's wife Jennifer was not amused. She wrote to Rock:
For your information, Chris, what Michael Vick did was to torture, drown, electrocute and murder dogs all for fun and for profit! He went to prison for felony animal cruelty! That's what he did! . . . These types of comments only encourage abuse and misunderstanding of this breed, as well as actual dog-fighting. Clearly this part of your latest stand-up routine would not make Richard laugh!
Instead, the role reportedly went to Marlon Wayans.
Was Rock's comment so different from others' supporting Vick? Yes. Usually, if people defend Vick, they start by admitting that Vick committed a terrible crime. The disagreement tends to center on whether Vick deserves a second chance at fame and fortune, considering that he served jail time and and says that he regrets his actions. Instead, Rock decided to excuse the crime, and as Pryor's wife points out, making light of Vick's actions make it easier for people to dismiss animal cruelty.
Oh, and for the record, Leno also seems to support Vick, and Vick is not sorry.
Malcolm Taylor / Getty Images
Suggested Reading:
- Michael Vick to Work with The Humane Society of the US
- Every Dogfighter Has His Day?
- ASPCA Turned Down Vick
- Boycott Nike
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I am trying to recall the last time I heard about Chris Rock torturing an animal, and I am having a really tough time thinking of a single instance. Chris Rock also has a joke about him driving his car with his feet and he also never did that in real life either.
My point here being; you can’t decide to dismiss the material that makes you laugh, and condemn him for the material that suits you or your particular situation. As a comedian, I would find the art hardly as interesting if people started telling me what I could, and could not joke about.
You’re all fighting for animal rights here, and I will not question or criticize that. I will however, ask you to cast some of that compassion and understanding on to your fellow man. Michael Vick did a horrible thing. So horrible that I believe most comedians have done what they have been doing since stand-up comedy came about, and that is taking the horrible, and coping with it through humor .
When all is said and done, actions are actions, and jokes, are just what they sound like, Jokes.
Kenny Klein
side note: i believe the entire wayans family is vegan!
I saw Chris Rock in concert when he was debuting his material on Vick. While I agree that comedians often tread on controversial ground and make light of horrible things (Sarah Silverman is a prime example), they often do it in a satirical or ironic way. Rock sounded like he was trying to make a point. I don’t think it was comedy as much as social commentary. I think he and many other (I’m not saying all, or even most, but many) black people have a disconnect over the public’s strong reaction to Vick’s crimes.
There are differences in how various communities/cultures view animals and animal rights and I think Rock’s material on Vick is a reflection of that. Great comedy plays off of differences, but also transcends them. So to me, Rock’s material adds insult to injury because on top of the lack of compassion it shows, it’s just not great comedy.
Kenny:
just because somebody doesn’t do the things they say doesn’t mean they don’t support it. Most neo-nazis haven’t waged a genocide, doesn’t mean it’s okay for them to support it.
Chris was trying to make the point that dogs have been used in the past to harass and attack black people. Which is an incredibly bizzare thing to say, because Michael Vick’s dogs were never used for that purpose, and it wouldn’t be the dog’s fault anyway if they were.
Also, if you think Vick and Chris are the victims here, and not the tortured, electrocuted dogs that were forced to fight, i think you really need to take a good long look at your conscience
When I HEARD the (above) exchange between Chris and Leno, both of them just suicided in my house!!!!!
There’s NO room for such ignorance and sadism-approval in my home…
I am so incredibly PLEASED by Mrs. Pryor’s actions!!!!!
Thank You!! Jennifer Pryor!! More people need to point out that support of such horrific acts will not be tolerated. When you have the power to influence so many, you should use that influence very wisely.
No words can begin to discribe everything that is so tragic about Chris Rock’s comments in this video.
Chris Rock:
“….. hey, I have a dog too, I have daughters too. Guess what, you can rape my dog, just leave my daughters alone cuz I’ll kill you….”
Blacklist Project video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmOHdWzdPVM
So in Jack’s mind if Chris Rock makes a joke about sympathizing with the nazi’s, that makes him a nazi?
Thank you Jennifer Pryor!
Now someone needs to get Amazon.com to stop selling their stupid “Michael Vick School of Dogs” t-shirts.
Sorry Kenny, but this isn’t material to be used in a joke. Just like it’s not ok to make jokes about Christopher Reeves, it’s not okay to joke about what he did.
The reason animal rights activists can’t move on is because Vick has never apologized for his actions. He doesn’t feel bad, he just wants to make sh!t tons of money again. Also, and this may be news to Mrs. Pryor, he didn’t go to prison for dogfighting or animal cruelty, but for bank rolling a dogfighting ring. That is what most people don’t understand, and what makes it so easy for people to say “he’s done his time/paid his dues.” HE HASN’T DONE TIME FOR ANIMAL CRUELTY, DESPITE ADMITTING TO EVEN THROWING FAMILY PETS IN A FIGHT AND LAUGHING AS THEY WERE RIPPED TO SHREDS! You want to know why we’re still angry, still upset with the NFL and sponsors, still unable to let this issue go? Read this: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/11/03/petscol110309.DTL
JOKING has limit’s Kenny and you need to figure that out.
I so applaund Mrs. Pryor for taking a stand against Chris Rock and I myself will NOT be watching anything with him in it again. As for Leno, I know where the OFF button is on my TV also.
Have YOU looked at the court documents and READ what Vick DID to those dogs? Is not, YOU can find them on “the smoking gun” web page. Try NOT to LAUGH to loud as there was some seriously SICK, DEMENTED, VICIOUS and BRUTAL things done.
Chris Rock went to FAR when he defended Vick and said Vicks VICTIMS weren’t even “real dogs”. Well real or not, tthey FELT THE PAIN when they were tortured and abused the way they were. Maybe YOU think that is a joke, but for the average person, it is not nor will it EVER be.
I applaud Jennifer Pryor’s decision & believe that she truly honored her late husband with this action. I do believe certain subjects just aren’t funny & should not be touched by comedians & this Vick subject is one of them. The point is Richard Pryor, great comic & willing to be controversial, would NEVER have joked about dog fighting & would NEVER have made light of such animal cruelty. Rock blew his chance for an unbelievable role for a few bad jokes! That’s show biz!
I’m addressing Ronda’s comment – #3 – she says, “There are differences in how various communities/cultures view animals and animal rights and I think Rock’s material on Vick is a reflection of that.” Whoopi Goldberg made the same type of comment – that dog fighting is viewed differently by the black culture. Well, you know what, the same could be said of white culture and slavery back in the day. Just because a culture doesn’t think it’s wrong doesn’t mean it’s right. And trying to defend that cultural bias is moronic. If that holds true, then we shouldn’t try to stop women from being circumsized in Africa, people hunting and killing endangered animals, or men stoning women to death in the Middle East. I’m sure they will all defend their actions based on culture and tradition.
Michelle, thanks for the link to the SFgate article. The whole world should know what a sadist Vicks is.
As the article states, jumper cables were clipped to the ears of underperforming dogs and then hooked up to a car battery, then these poor animals were thrown into a swimming pool. When investigators saw the pool, the liner had been shredded and the aluminum edge destroyed due to the desperate thrashings and frantic terror of dogs who DIED SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY in this warped, sick, twisted manner.
What does this tell you about the human being who sanctions this? Or his supporters? I am absolutely sickened beyond belief.
culture and tradition is NO excuse, people know when they inflict pain, they know when they take that life. I have also heard how he was just young and didn’t know, oh gimme a break!! my grand son was single digits when it happened and he was sick over it, he wanted to know how bad it was for those dogs, and he asked why someone would do that.
culture, tradition, his youth? my backside!! it was money that led him to do those dispicable acts, it is unethical, immoral, and ILLEGAL. think he may have had a clue to that one?
THANK YOU JENNIFER PRYOR, YOU ARE A SHINING EXAMPLE IN JUST ACTION!
you can joke about almost anything, as long as you’re on the right side of the debate. someone asked rock about roman polanski and, using his jokey voice, he cried out, “she was 13?!” he could’ve roasted vick and things would be a.o.k.
ALL ANIMAL ABUSERS SHOULD HAVE THEIR AT LEAST 30 YEARS IN PRISON, WITHOUT TO SEE THE SUNLIGHT!
Mrs Pryor did the right thing and I’m sure her late husband would very please with what she did. As for Chris Rock, a very sad excuse for a human being for to be human is to be humane.
Regarding comment #3, animal cruelty cannot be justified for any reason what so ever, whether it be culture, tradition, religion, entertainment or what ever label is put on it.
HOW ABOUT NO ONE WATCHES THE 8 PART SERIES THEY ARE MAKING W/ VICK???? HOW FAIR IS THAT??? DON’T WATCH, AND IF ANYONE DOES, PLEASE LIST ALL ADVERTISERS SO WE CAN BAN THEM OR SHALL I SAY I SAY ADD TO THE LIST.