Matt Rife Domestic Violence Joke Controversy

Overview

Matt Rife Domestic Violence Joke Controversy refers to backlash over a joke told by American comedian Matt Rife in his November 2023 Netflix special Natural Selection that many perceived as making fun of domestic violence, centering on a waitress with a black eye. Following the special, numerous social media users attempted to cancel Rife for telling the joke as discourse ensued on sites and platforms like Twitter / X and TikTok. Rife also released a mock apology on his Instagram Story that included a link to special needs helmets for children. The action caused backlash and memes that ridiculed the comedian. Many who posted memes about Rife were also purportedly blocked by him on Twitter, causing another slew of reactions and outrage.

Background

On November 15th, 2023, Matt Rife's special Natural Selection was released for streaming on Netflix.^[1] In the first few minutes of the special Rife told a joke about domestic violence, centering on a waitress with a black eye. In the joke, Rife also reiterated female stereotypes and gender roles like cooking and being in the kitchen. He ended the joke by saying that he was "testing the waters" to see if the audience was "fun or not."

The joke was initially criticized in a tweet shared by X^[2] user @alisonklemp on November 16th, who wrote, "Matt Rife opens his special with a 'if a woman could cook she wouldn’t have a black eye' joke. Really? This is your god?" gaining roughly 4,600 likes in six days (shown below).

The joke was recorded and posted to TikTok^[3] by user @debbydesperado on November 19th, 2023, with text overlay reading, "Pretty privilege can't excuse his jokes for much longer." In three days, the video received over 4.2 million plays and 80,900 likes (shown below)

Online Reactions

As the clip surfaced across social media, many negatively reacted to the joke. For instance, on November 20th, 2023, X^[4] user @akhasarya commented on Rife seemingly earning a following due to women and then betraying them with the joke, receiving roughly 3,800 likes in two days (shown below, left).

On November 21st, X^[5] user @gldivittorio hypothesized that Rife was "about to do a right wing edge lord rebrand and make a killing in the middle aged white woman market," gaining over 4,500 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Others online showed support for Rife, such as Australian comedian and YouTuber^[6] Isaac Butterfield in a video uploaded on November 22nd, 2023, which received roughly 142,900 views and 12,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Reactions

Developments

Matt Rife's "Special Needs Helmets" Instagram Story

On November 21st, 2023, TikToker^[7] @samanthafekete posted a video in which she asked the viewers if they'd seen Matt Rife's then-active Instagram Story in which he linked to a fake apology that sent users to a webpage to purchase helmets for special needs children. The TikToker's video received over 4.9 million plays and 588,500 likes in one day (shown below).

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References