ROCK WAS LUCKY, I GOT KNOCKED OUT
– Comic Jerry Sadowitz
CHRIS Rock isn’t the first comic to have been attacked on stage after a joke misfired... just ask Jerry Sadowitz.
The controversial Scot was knocked out cold by an angry audience member at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival.
The notoriously offensive jokesmith, 60, enraged the punter in 1991 after he opened his set with the line: “Hello Moosef***ers. I tell you why I hate Canada: Half of you speak French and the other half let them.”
More than 30 years later, US comic Rock was slapped by Will Smith in front of a shocked Oscars ceremony crowd and a worldwide TV audience running into the millions.
Smith was furious after Rock suggested his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, who has shaved her head due to alopecia, was set to appear in “GI
Jane 2”.
The Daily Star
Sunday asked Sadowitz for his views on the Oscars debacle and he said: “I like to punch myself at the start of each show and get it out the way.
“I always try to ‘punch upwards’ to keep The Guardian readers happy.”
He added: “Sometimes the punters will slap themselves, but that’s just to stay awake.”
In 2007, Australian comic
Jim Jefferies was attacked by a man at the Manchester Comedy Store. The punter did not like a line Jefferies used against a heckler: “I’m going to leave you alone now, just like your dad did. Too bad your uncle didn’t.”
Jefferies, like Rock, managed to regain his composure and complete his set, saying: “If you enjoyed my show and you want to see more of me, I’ll be getting my head kicked in in the alleyway.”
Sadowitz is going on a 10-date tour of Scotland later this year.
The foul-mouthed funnyman has promised “less hate-fuelled swearing” and promised to return with impressions of “Greta Thunberg, Frankie Boyle and deep vein thrombosis”.
Hello moose f***ers