Matt Rife isn’t sorry for his controversial jokes about domestic violence. In fact, he’s doubling down on them.
During his show at L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl as part of the Netflix Is a Joke festival, the comedian touched on the backlash against his 2023 stand-up special Natural Selection, in which he told a story about a restaurant hostess who had a black eye. “I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn’t have that black eye,” he quipped in the special.
Variety reports that at his Hollywood Bowl show on Wednesday night, Rife made another domestic violence joke, as well as some jokes about trans people. He then told the crowd, “What am I gonna do? Get canceled? Cool, I’ll do another Bowl show, awesome.”
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“You know [getting canceled] is not a real punishment—nothing happens,” the comedian added. “Prison’s a punishment.”
Rife’s Natural Selection special—his first for Netflix—immediately drew backlash last year, as many critics and fans suggested he’d gone gone too far with his material about domestic violence. Even comedian Marc Maron called Rife “the new It Boy of shitty comedy.” Rife later attempted to justify the joke in an interview with Variety, saying he wanted to show that his success in comedy wasn’t just because women found him attractive: “One thing that I wanted to tackle in this special was showing people that, like, despite what you think about me online, I don’t pander my career to women.”
Rife’s comments amid the backlash did little to endear him to detractors, as he continued to stir up controversy by sparring online with a 6-year-old and his mother, shunning his female fan base, and making fun of the mentally impaired by offering anyone he offends a special-needs helmet. And yet, Rife’s popularity has continued to grow, as Netflix recently offered him a massive two-special deal, which includes a workplace comedy that he’ll reportedly star in and write.
