Do we like Chris Rock?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent record, no campaigning against any group found, but contested jokes, a 2011 tweet and an old accusation he was never charged over keep it short of a nine.
Rock was born in South Carolina and raised in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, where his mum raised him and his nine younger siblings with firm rules and no room for the word “can't”. He dropped out of high school, worked minimum-wage restaurant jobs and started stand-up in 1984. Eddie Murphy spotted him, mentored him and gave him a first film role in Beverly Hills Cop II.
He joined Saturday Night Live in 1990 but left in 1993 over creative differences, including being handed parts that leaned on his race. He then rebuilt through stand-up: four Emmys and three Grammys for specials and albums, plus two stints hosting the Oscars. The 2005 gig came with a stoush before it even began, when he told Entertainment Weekly he found the show a fashion parade and joked about who watches it.
On the harm check, nothing we found shows Rock campaigning against any group's rights. In 2011 he tweeted that he didn't want to live in a world where Tracy Morgan can't say foul things, after Morgan's set about stabbing a gay son; GLAAD replied that such language is dangerous. In 2005 GLAAD itself defended him over the Oscars remark, and in his 2023 Netflix special he joked about trans people, which some viewers found funny and one trans woman's father called flat.
In May 2022 he also joked at the Royal Albert Hall that Amber Heard was lying about Johnny Depp, a bit that landed badly with plenty of people. Politically, he told Variety in September he's “not a fan” of Trump but that on the media, the news is fake and Trump got that right. NewsBusters said that put him on the president's wavelength; whether you read it as a comedian being contrary or as a nod to a talking point is your call.
The old cloud is from 1998. At the 2008 trial of private investigator Anthony Pellicano, the AP reported that a model had accused Rock of sexual assault, and he testified he hired Pellicano but didn't know his tactics. Rock said he was never arrested or charged over the accusation, and DNA tests showed he wasn't the father of her child. It's decades old and went nowhere in court, but it's on the record.
In October he told the New York Times he's “done” with Will Smith slap talk and wishes everyone well, which is a calmer note than the 2023 special, where he said he's “not a victim, baby”. He also owned a regret: he had the means to pay for a lawyer for a friend's brother, who spent 19 years in prison, and didn't. And he's warned that wokeness has made the world less forgiving, which some will cheer and others will bristle at.