After Facing Fierce Backlash For A Problematic Domestic Violence Joke In November, Matt Rife Apparently Poked Fun At The Total Lack Of Consequences He Faced
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In November, comic Matt Rife came under scrutiny when his Netflix special, Natural Selection, premiered.
For context, Matt spent years trying to get his big break on the comedy circuit, but it didn’t work out for him until he blew up on TikTok back in 2022, building an online following mostly made up of women.
Prior to the special’s release, Matt had said that he had consciously written it with a male audience in mind, and appeared to have a chip on his shoulder about his women-dominated fanbase.
Speaking to Variety, he insisted: “One of the biggest misconceptions of things I get ridiculed online for is people are like, 'Oh, he only has a female fanbase.' In the beginning, yes, because I did blow up on TikTok, which is very female-dominant."
“That’s 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,” Matt added. “I would argue this special is way more for guys.”
The special was filmed in Washington, DC, and begins with Matt comparing “ratchet” Baltimore to “beautiful” Maryland. Discussing the former, Matt tells the audience: "I've only been to Baltimore one time, and the hostess who seats you had a black eye.”
"A full black eye. It wasn't like, 'What happened?' It was pretty obvious what happened,” he continues. “We couldn't get over, like, this is the face of the company? This is who you have greeting people?"
"And 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,'" Matt concludes, receiving a shocked reaction from the crowd.
Responding to the audience’s groans, Matt says: “Testing the water, seeing if y'all are going to be fun or not. I figured we start the show with domestic violence; the rest of the show should be pretty smooth sailing."
He later quips that the woman with the black eye “should have had her protection crystals,” leading into a lengthy bit that mocks “crystal girls” and women who are into astrology.
Needless to say, Matt seemingly trying to appeal to a male audience by mocking violence against women did not go down well, and he was quickly called out for it on social media.
The comic was accused of betraying the fanbase to which he owes much of his success by “pandering to frat bros,” and he was branded “desperate and sad” for seeking male approval in this way.
Ultimately, Matt’s response to the backlash only courted more controversy. The star posted a link to his “apology” on his Instagram story, only for it to lead to a medical shop website’s page for “special needs helmets.”
Matt was criticized at the time for “using ableism” in an apparent bid to seem “edgy.”
Despite this, it was later confirmed that Matt has two more specials in the works with Netflix, and on Wednesday, he performed a sold-out show at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the Netflix Is a Joke Festival.
And Matt reportedly reflected on the lack of repercussions he faced despite being “canceled” during his recent set, where he also made direct reference to his poorly-received domestic violence joke.
Per Variety, Matt joked about transgender people in his 90-minute set before addressing the fact that this could be controversial. He purportedly told the crowd: “What am I gonna do? Get canceled? Cool, I’ll do another Bowl show, awesome.”
“You know that’s not a real punishment,” he said of being canceled. “Nothing happens; prison’s a punishment.”
Matt is said to have then made multiple prison jokes before speaking to an audience member who said that he’d served time for assault.
Matt reportedly then asked the man’s date: “Ma’am, are you OK?” before quipping: “Guys, I’m kidding. Domestic violence is not funny, ever, ever, on any comedy special, ever.”
Needless to say, Variety’s report has not been well-received, with people discussing Matt’s new material on a Reddit forum.
One person said: “welp, guess he’s continuing his mission to be the worst possible version of a human. what an absolute moron.”
“It’s kind of amazing how he built this carefully crafted persona of himself through instagram and TikTok only to douse that persona in gasoline and light it on fire the first chance he got when given a big opportunity to prove himself,” somebody else wrote.
While another pointed out the sad truth behind Matt’s comment about being canceled, saying: “Well he’s not exactly wrong, unfortunately.”
“He should’ve just shut up and kept being Funny Handsome Squidward because he could’ve at least floated by on his alleged good looks (and white privilege),” one more argued. “But now he’s circling the drain that all these unfunny comedians do which is transphobia and ‘you can’t cancel me!’ nonsense.”
Matt previously sparked ridicule for insisting that his physical appearance makes it harder to be a comedian, telling Men’s Health last year: “People don’t want to laugh at physically attractive people, you don’t want to walk on stage and have people looking at your arms rather than listening to your jokes.”
And in June 2023, Matt was widely mocked after he said that he’d had the “humbling epiphany” that the people who criticize him are just jealous.
During an appearance on the Cancelled with Tana Mongeau podcast, Matt said: “Here’s a very humbling epiphany that I’ve had recently, because so many fucking people hate me for really no reason, and it made me realize that people only hate somebody they’re jealous of.”
Host Tana then caught Matt off guard by bluntly asking: “Do you think people who hate Osama bin Laden are just jealous of him?”
Matt often references his conventional good looks in his standup sets, but footage of him looking remarkably different in 2015, at age 20, on the MTV show Wild ’N Out has sparked speculation that he has had either plastic surgery or facial filler to transform his appearance over the years.
Matt has always vehemently denied this, instead saying he had a “natural glow-up” due to late puberty.
And when a plastic surgeon uploaded a social media video that joked he’d created “the greatest jawline ever seen” for a patient who got “cancelled right after” in November, Matt appeared to take the joke personally and once again attempted to shut down the speculation.
While the surgeon didn’t explicitly reference Matt, the comic commented on the Instagram video: “Lying about medical history is illegal, just FYI.”
This response raised eyebrows from others, with many claiming that they “had no clue” who the doctor was alluding to before Matt commented. One person wrote at the time: “bro’ why you commenting. No one has mentioned you . You give yourself away 😩 Delete !”
Others couldn’t resist referencing Matt’s then-recent response to the backlash that his domestic violence joke had received, with somebody asking: “Matt…are you not able to take a joke??????? 🙂”
While another earnestly commented: “but its a joke? I thought you could joke about anything?”
Matt faced a similar reaction the following month after he was accused of starting “beef” with a 6-year-old boy on social media. The planet-obsessed son of TikToker Bunny Hedaya was featured in one of her videos to correct Matt’s reference to Jupiter in a clip from his standup that was going viral at the time.
Bunny was then left stunned when Matt commented on the TikTok to tell her son that Santa Claus “isn’t real” and that his mom buys his presents from the money she makes on OnlyFans.
It’s worth mentioning that Bunny doesn’t have an OnlyFans account, and Matt faced renewed backlash for coming after a child.
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