Chris Rock is the latest celebrity to receive online criticism after leaving viewers furious when he cracked a controversial joke during Sunday Night’s Academy Awards.
Rock, who was hosting the show, brought three young Asian Americans out on stage in order to make a joke based on the stereotype about Asians being good at math however this, quite rightly, did not go down well with viewers.
These kids look like the job of PriceWaterhouseCoopers accountant terrifies them. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/XNlrREej2Y
— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) February 29, 2016
He introduced the three children, who had been purposely given Asian and Jewish sounding names, as “bankers” from the finance firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Rock stated that the company had sent “their most dedicated, accurate and hard working representatives,” before announcing:
“Please welcome Ming Zhu, Bao Ling and David Moskowitz.”
Rock must have predicted that he would receive a backlash for the controversial joke but then decided to add insult to injury by saying:
“If anybody’s upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone, which was also made by these kids.”
The issue of diversity at the Oscars has been a hot topic of late, with Rock even opening his monologue with a joke about the lack of black nominees by claiming he would not have been hosting the awards if he had been nominated for it.
Despite this the only mention of Asians was a joke about a stereotype and a reference to child labor. Rock’s hypocrisy did not go unnoticed by the viewers at home and complaints flooded in by those left furious by the tasteless joke.
Hundreds of viewers were shocked and disgusted by Rock’s racist jokes and wasted no time in Tweeting their thoughts on the controversial matter.
Umm, no @chrisrock. Using little Asian kids to joke about math stereotypes and child labor isn't funny.
— HapaMama (@HapaMamaGrace) February 29, 2016
WHAAAAAAAT was that joke with the Asian kids. #Oscars
— Angry Asian Man (@angryasianman) February 29, 2016
Think my brain shut down for a few minutes. Did that appalling joke about Asian kids actually happen? #Oscars
— Justin Chang (@JustinCChang) February 29, 2016
How unnecessary to make fun of Asians on the #Oscars when Hollywood isn't even evolved enough to give Asians Asian-specific roles yet.
— Jen Chae (@frmheadtotoe) February 29, 2016
So we’re all upset about the racial makeup of the Oscars but it’s OK to make fun of Asian kids onstage?
— Blake Hounshell (powered by blockchain) (@blakehounshell) February 29, 2016
Half-assed Asian joke, #Oscars, and then preach about diversity? #LoseMe
— Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) February 29, 2016
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psMlijqjryo]
Image via YouTube.
