Amidst the controversy surrounding his recent jokes about domestic violence and ableism, a resurfaced clip of Matt Rife claiming people who hate him are just jealous is making the rounds, and people are finally amused.
Let's walk it back.
In his new Netflix special Natural Selection, Rife did a bit about domestic abuse.
He started:
"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."
"We couldn't get over, like, this is the face of the company? This is who you have greeting people?
Rife went on:
"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.'"
Given the audience's reaction, he then said:
"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."
Needless to say, that didn't go over well.
In response to the backlash, though, Rife doubled down and posted on his Instagram stories:
"If you've ever been offended by a joke I've told - here's a link to my official apology."
@mattrife/Instagram
That link directed to a medical supply web page for special needs helmets.
Yes, Rife apologized for joking about domestic violence by making an ableist joke.
Now a resurfaced video is going viral, and Rife was absolutely destroyed for his deep thoughts.
Back in June, Rife was on the podcast Cancelled with Tana Mongeau.
During one part of the episode, Rife shed light on what he called a “very humbling epiphany that I’ve had recently.”
He explained:
“Because so many f**king people hate me for really no reason, it really made me realize that people only hate somebody they’re jealous of.”
“I’ve been guilty of hating people, and when I really sat back and thought about it, it was because I was jealous of where that person was in their life."
“I felt like they got an opportunity that maybe I should have gotten.”
Mongeau complimented his thoughts.
“That’s a really, really good, well-rounded answer that I’m trying to wrap my head around."
Then she completely obliterated him.
“Do you think people who hate Osama bin Laden are just jealous of him?”
You can watch below.
WARNING: NSFW language
Viewers of the clip were highly entertained... not by Rife, but by the host's complete shutdown, of course.
The full episode shows Rife responding to the host:
“Yeah, of course!”
“They’re jealous they weren’t the ones calling the shots. Everyone wants to be the one with the remote.”
Oh, boy
He then explained that "hating" is different than "hating on."
“‘Hating’ someone, I think that person had to have done something to you. But ‘hating on’ is just a lot of jealousy. And we’ve all been there. Everybody’s been jealous of somebody.”
Okay.
@PreetBharara/X
@RepBrendanBoyle/X
@twesq/Bluesky
@christopherharris/Bluesky
@evangelinewarren/X
@FrankC164/X
AMC