That Time Arsenio cut Chris Rock off for getting at Johnny Carson

[get these nets]

It was the 90s. Chris's humor then was no different then the shyt on Def Comedy Jam. I always think it's odd when 90s babies or people born after a certain time period want to be offended over shyt like this. I might've saw it as a preteen or teen, laughed my ass off went to school the next day and talked about it with my friends. I never had a negative image over it because it was comedy and I have the ability to separate a stand up comedian from a politician or more serious commentary. And it would never be looked at as anything more than standup but due to the Internet we got racist and lames who take this footage and turn it into propaganda for their cause and that's where everybody who wasn't there wants to be offended on behalf of everybody else. Obviously it wouldn't work now, shyt like Eddie's jokes from the 80s, whole lotta comedians from the 90s but I ain't gonna look at comedy as anything other than comedy.

I'm the one in the thread who is not feeling the "grace jones looks like a chimney sweep" and miles davis is as black as jokes. I was born in the 1970s....and was definitely "there" when Arsenio was on the air.

Chris Rock's soul glow hairstyle says this aired in the 1980s.
The 90s rejected a lot of the stuff from the 1980s
Outside of Bernie Mac making Black jokes about himself...you'll be hard pressed to find "dark skin jokes" on classic def comedy jam episodes
If you don't have a problem with the jokes, fine but how do you question why somebody else would be offended?

In Newark, we grew up "hiking" on each other 24/7 .A funny joke is a funny joke, but all I heard was self hatred on full display.

 

[BelowTheMasonDixon]

Quick fact Arsenio grew up wanting to be like Johnny Carson.

I remember that from reading his book.

“Arsenio was the first to really make a dent in [Carson’s] ratings, and he was reaching a younger audience. And Arsenio grew up adoring Johnny Carson,” says the documentary’s director Peter Jones. “Arsenio became a magician as a kid because of Johnny Carson. He became a nice dresser because of Johnny Carson. He absolutely worshipped Johnny. But he very consciously tried to do a different kind of show. He wasn’t trying to compete with Johnny. …He wanted to reach the children of Johnny’s audience.”

 

[get these nets]

Quick fact Arsenio grew up wanting to be like Johnny Carson.

I remember that from reading his book.

“Arsenio was the first to really make a dent in [Carson’s] ratings, and he was reaching a younger audience. And Arsenio grew up adoring Johnny Carson,” says the documentary’s director Peter Jones. “Arsenio became a magician as a kid because of Johnny Carson. He became a nice dresser because of Johnny Carson. He absolutely worshipped Johnny. But he very consciously tried to do a different kind of show. He wasn’t trying to compete with Johnny. …He wanted to reach the children of Johnny’s audience.”

TV landscape was different...anybody on tv was a star...and Johnny was the only one doing late night tv. He was a gatekeeper for comedians.........landing on the show was big. If he invited you to sit and speak after your set....he was cosigning you and you were a star overnight.

Johnny was funny, but was a typical racist white man. Richard Pryor stopped using the N word because JC felt comfortable enough saying it to him during an interview. Pryor went through a personal soul searching much like what Dave Chappelle went though later over the same issue....whether white people were laughing with him or at him and his brand of humor.

Arsenio was protecting Chris Rock from being whiteballed by cutting him off, not protecting Carson.

 

[BelowTheMasonDixon]

TV landscape was different...anybody on tv was a star...and Johnny was the only one doing late night tv. He was a gatekeeper for comedians.........landing on the show was big. If he invited you to sit and speak after your set....he was cosigning you and you were a star overnight.

Johnny was funny, but was a typical racist white man. Richard Pryor stopped using the N word because JC felt comfortable enough saying it to him during an interview. Pryor went through a personal soul searching much like what Dave Chappelle went though later over the same issue....whether white people were laughing with him or at him and his brand of humor.

Arsenio was protecting Chris Rock from being whiteballed by cutting him off, not protecting Carson.

I wasn't defending Johnny Carson or Arsenio Hall, I was just stating from what I read. Arsenio Hall admired Johnny Carson and he chose being a comedian because of him. If Arsenio was protecting Chris Rock that's definitely very noble of him. Because I imagine someone dumber would have let Chris go in, and fukk up future opportunities.

 

[Devilinurear]

Did Chris rock ever make on to Carson?