CW: Mentions of ableism and misogyny
Matt Rife’s new Netflix special is supposedly a comedy; I didn’t find it very funny.
The 28-year-old comedian and actor from Ohio has recently received a lot of backlash from his special, Natural Selection, which was released on Nov. 15.
Rife is facing criticism that his special contains blatantly sexist and ableist jokes. In response to the backlash, he told The New York Times that he doesn’t think anybody should feel mad just because he was trying to make people laugh. He is either unaware of what is offensive or is overconfident in his assertion that people are wrong for being upset.
The problem isn’t that Rife wants to try for edgier humour; it’s important to take risks in comedy, and not everyone will like every joke—especially when it mentions oppressed people. The main reason why people are bothered is that Natural Selection is quite different from the comedy that made him famous. His comedy career first started to gain popularity when clips of his flirtatious crowd work—which greatly contrasts the juvenile comedy style of Natural Selection—began circulating on YouTube and Facebook. In an interview with Variety, Rife said his special is intended “way more for guys,” which, to him, translates to the jokes being at the expense of women and autistic people. His opening joke, used for “testing the water” with his audience, was that Baltimore is “ratchet” and that women with black eyes should hide in the kitchen. Although humour is extremely subjective, fans aren’t satisfied with the new Rife who thinks domestic violence is a joke.
Rife has remarked in the past that his following consists mostly of women on the “very female dominant” TikTok, and this abrupt change in style marks an evident desire to appeal to a more male-dominated audience. It’s okay if he wants to write for men, but I question why he decided to do this at the cost of his primary audience. People don’t need to cancel him, because he’s cancelled himself by deliberately ridiculing the people who have supported him the most.
The real cherry on top of all of this was his “apology,” which he posted to his Instagram Story on Nov. 20. Along with the caption, “If you’ve ever been offended by a joke I’ve told – here’s a link to my official apology,” he shared a link to a website selling special needs helmets for adults and children. Is it subjectively funny that he managed to make himself look even worse by leaning into the criticisms that his comedy is ableist? Yes, it is.
After the special’s release, Rife’s previous controversies have begun circulating on social media. Most notably, he touched the then 18-year-old Zendaya’s face without her permission on the show Wild ‘N Out in 2015 during a game called “Talking Spit,” where players try to make someone spit out their water, usually from laughing. Rife’s initial attempts to make the actress spit out her water weren’t successful, so he tried to get a reaction out of her by touching her face. In the clip, Zendaya is visibly uncomfortable, and her teammates rush to defend her. He also posted a since-deleted tweet that perpetuated anti-Asian sentiments, referencing what at the time was the novel Coronavirus, by targeting the cast of the Korean film Parasite in his caption: “Everyone at the #Oscars waiting to see if the cast of Parasite coughs.”
This new style he’s going for is not funny, and is certainly not okay either. It took me a while to realize why he seems so familiar—he reminds me of middle-school boys trying to earn their peers’ approval. He has the bad habit of making jokes that are blatantly sexist, ableist, or racist in order to please others, specifically men. Although men do not inherently appreciate this type of humour, men are Rife’s intended audience. Rife needs to take note that discriminatory humour shouldn’t be considered a form of humour, but a form of bullying.
