BS BULLETIN:

• Chris Rock says the problem with modern “wokeness” is that there’s “no forgiveness.”
• The comedian compared the movement’s evolution to the Salem witch trials and joked that once you create a “witch office,” it has to keep finding witches.
• Rock also credited the post-George Floyd cultural shift with giving marginalized people a stronger voice.

Chris Rock says the push to give marginalized people a stronger voice accomplished something worthwhile — but somewhere along the way, he believes “wokeness” lost the concept of forgiveness.

The comedian offered a blunt assessment of the post-George Floyd cultural era during an interview with David Marchese for The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast, comparing parts of the movement to both the Old Testament and the Salem witch trials.

Warning: Strong Language

(Video Credit: The Interview)

Rock’s comments came during a broader discussion about forgiveness, a theme in his upcoming film “Misty Green.” He recalled being questioned about why he remained friends with someone who had been “canceled.”

Rock argued that friendship doesn’t mean abandoning someone whenever that person does something wrong. He stressed that forgiveness doesn’t require condoning abusive behavior and that friends can — and should — hold one another accountable.

That led Rock into his criticism of modern “wokeness.”

“The problem with wokeness is we’re in the Old Testament right now,” Rock said, arguing that the problem with that approach is “no forgiveness.”

He joked that the New Testament was essentially a “remix” necessitated by that unforgiving standard.

Rock was careful not to dismiss everything that came from what Marchese described as the “Woke 1.0” period immediately following George Floyd’s death.

He said giving marginalized people a voice was “great” and that society should continue helping people who need it. Rock said he was glad the cultural shift happened because it exposed him to voices he otherwise might not have heard.

His objection was to what happened when the movement became institutionalized.

That’s when Rock reached for the Salem witch trials.

In what he described as “half a joke,” Rock suggested that once you create a permanent institution devoted to hunting witches, eventually that institution has to keep finding witches to justify its existence.

“But then you open up a witch office and now you gotta start lyin’,” Rock joked, adding that eventually people have to “make sh*t up” because the institution has overhead.

The comedian’s larger point was that a movement created to address genuine problems can become something very different when its survival depends upon continually finding new offenders.

Rock, 61, made the comments while promoting “Misty Green,” which he wrote and directed and in which he also stars. The film is scheduled to open in select theaters Oct. 9.

MY QUICK TAKE

Rock’s “witch office” line is funny because there’s an old institutional truth hiding inside the joke: bureaucracies rarely throw themselves a retirement party after solving the problem they were created to address.

And coming from a comedian who has spent decades making a living by saying uncomfortable things out loud, that critique carries a little more weight than another politician discovering the phrase “cancel culture” five minutes before going on cable television.

DBS WIRE SOURCES

• Mediaite — Chris Rock compares ‘Woke 1’ to Old Testament and Salem witch trials
• Mediaite — Rock expands on Salem witch-trial comparison
• TheWrap — Chris Rock discusses wokeness, forgiveness and cancel culture