Talk:Chris Rock

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Contents

[edit] Schooling

The article says that he went to Stuyvesant high school, which is located in Manhattan, and the third paragraph says that he went to a high school in Bensonhurst, which is in Brooklyn. Where did he actually go to high school? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.47.208.34 (talk • contribs) 12:16, 3 October 2005

Other than some apparent confusion in web biographies with the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that Chris Rock attended Stuyvesant High School. Some of these bios refer to a "Bedford-Stuyvesant High School", but there isn't any such school. There is a good chance that Rock attended Boys' High School or its successor Boys and Girls High School, which is located in Bed-Stuy. I tried several times to confirm the Stuyvesant connection, but to no avail. I'm going to remove the references, but if someone can cite a reasonbly authoritative source I'd love to be proved wrong. RossPatterson 17:08, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Couldn't find the Stuyvesant High School reference anywhere else, and checked the Stuyvesant High School site, where he is not listed as an alumnus. On page 46 of his autobiography, "Rock This," Rock writes, "I got bused from Bed-Stuy to a white school in a poor white neighborhood: Gerretson Beach, Brooklyn. It was even worse than where I lived." Stuyvesant is in the Wall Street district of Manhattan. A fan site (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=14712) links to a 2001 New Republic article discussing Rock's unpleasant experiences at high school—the New Republic uses the spelling "Gerretsen" Beach. Zoidbergmd (talk) 16:59, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

IMDB says he was born in 1965, but here it says 1967. Which is right? -- 65.93.81.198 07:09, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Talk 2: Chris Rock

Look! Chris Rock does go to high school since the 80's he was born in 1969!!! because on the Everybody Hates Chris Summary saids that Chris Rock turns 13 years old on 1982 and that's truth because that never lies so that makes it that he was born in February 7, 1969 do you get it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.39.253.198 (talk • contribs) 21:06, 13 October 2005

I'm pretty sure he didn't go to stuy... thats where i go now, and i'd have heard about him going here if he did.Ironearth 23:09, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Where is the evidence that Rock was fired from SNL for drug use?

He wasn't; he left of his own accord to join In Living Color before the show was abruptly canceled that season. BabuBhatt 05:05, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Controversy

Why is there a controversy section here? The stuff from Never Scared never drew any fire, please provide a source for that because comedians say a lot of outlandish things. The Academy Awards thing doesn't seem like much controversy, nor does his parody of Kanye West seem like controversy. I'm considering removing the whole section since it's rather pointless.

Inner City Blues 23:18, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Who had mostly forgotten the remark

How does the author know what the telivision audience forgot with regard to Sean Penn/Chris Rocks remarks at the 77th Oscars. Indeed how does the author know that Rock was one of the 'Preeminent' comic minds of his generation (thats definately arguable but here it is presented as a given).

This is one more example of why Wikipedia really wont ever be a serious academic tool.......Adam777 22:57, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I disagree, wikipedia is serious that is all. Volt M 22:14, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

I changed the sentence and removed the phrase "to the surprise of a television audience that had mostly forgotten the remark" - that is just conjecture, the author has no way of knowing if the TV audience was surprised or indeed what they had or had not forgotten. Adam777 15:10, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Abortion

The abortion thing seems pretty trivial and POV, especially considering there's no citation. I'm taking it out.

[edit] Birth Date?

I have a book written and autographed by Chris Rock....Rock This! He claims to have been born on February 5, 1966 a few times in the book. Few people forget the year in which they are born. Quit saying it's 1965. I'll even scan one of the pages claiming this if i have to.

Do we have a clear source for this information? 1965 and 1966 seem to be distributed evenly across the internet. Hotwine8 01:41, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

The 1965 date might stem from the fact that on Never Scared, which was recorded in March 2004 -- ie. after his birthday -- he starts off his "Rap Standup" segment by stating "now I'm 39, right". That would make his date of birth 1965. But yeah, there are other equally reputable sources claiming different things... IMDB says 1965, AOL's biography says 1966, Allmusic says 196? ... -/- Warren 02:19, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

I have the book... and it does in fact claim he was born in 1966 once, but then there's the issues with him saying otherwise, as well. I was going to propose we go with 1965, seeing as he actually said he was 39 in March of 2004, but now I'm hearing his spoken word contradict this. Perhaps he wants to create some confusion?Bryanedp9 07:10, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Isn't anyone gonna take a picture of this guy? If not, i'm afraid we'd have to use the so-called "fair-use" "policy"Walter Humala - Emperor of West Wikipedia |wanna Talk? 05:47, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Rock was on the Oprah Winfrey show on February 28, 2007. He said he was 42 years old. MrBlondNYC 08:21, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
Saw that two 65.95.140.34 05:52, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Children

I just saw Chris Rock on the Jonathan Ross show and he said that he has two daughters, aged 5 and 3. Where did 8 come from?! (January 11 2008)

[edit] Questionable passage in Comedic style section

A tagged passage in the Comedic style section reads:

"Rock is uncomfortable with the idea of being seen as a larger than life figure in standup comedy as opposed to some of his heroes like Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor; when pressed for a statement during an interview with Playboy, he hesitated and finally responded: "I talked about race differently. I'll go that far".

What does this mean? When pressed for a statement? A statement regarding what? Shouldn't the passage indicate what the question was that he was responding to? "Statement", by itself, doesn't mean anything. Without the question, the answer he gives about talking about race differently is completely decontextualized, and makes no sense. And what does his discomfort with being seen as larger-than-life have to do with his comedic style? Nightscream 02:33, 11 February 2008

Excellent point; I tried to clarify what the original author appears to have meant -- that becoming famous obliged Rock to fill an "ethnic spokesperson" role with which he was uncomfortable; it's a point I've heard Rock discuss in interviews, and one I've heard fellow standup David Chappelle make as well. Zoidbergmd (talk) 00:38, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Okay, but the passage needs to be clarified so that the contextual relevance of the answer he gave to the point you explained above is clear. No offense, but as it stands now, the passage makes little sense. In addition, you have to cite the exact source. Thanks. Nightscream (talk) 04:50, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
Done. My aim had been to retain the author's original language, but his point did seem to dart around and then dropped down the rabbit hole. I did, however, source the original Playboy quote; it came from an interview in the September, 1999 issue—conducted by David Rensin, his co-author on the memoir. Zoidbergmd (talk) 10:16, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Verification

Added verification/citations for the "Recurring SNL Characters" and "Celebrity Impersonations" sections; all entries are verifiable through the (fairly complete) site "Saturday Night Live Transcripts" (http://snltranscripts.jt.org/). Zoidbergmd (talk) 17:06, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for responding to the citation tags. However, there are a few problems. The citation given for the recurring characters does not establish that Nat X was a recurring character. It merely is a transcript from one episode in which Nat appeared, which does not indicate his recurring status. Second, no citations are given for the others. Instead, you wrote in the citation, "The rest of the characters from the "Recurring Characters" section may be found on the site as well". This is not an acceptable citation. All of the individual characters asserted in that section need to be sourced. If they're found elsewhere on that site, then the urls have to be given, and the webpages must establish their recurring status as well. Lastly, the source you provided for the Celebrity impersonations section is simply a reiteration of the source you provided for the Recurring section, and makes no mention of Idi Amin, or any of the Impersonations, giving only the same explanation about them being supported elsewhere on the site, to which I reiterate the same answer. Nightscream (talk) 05:20, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
"Celebrity Impressions" Sourced and verified every impression; no record of a "Mike Tyson"—on the other hand, the writer had left out "Nipsey Russell" and 2 Live Crew's "Luther Campbell." Zoidbergmd (talk) 09:54, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
"Recurring Characters" Sourced and verified each of Rock's character. Whew. Zoidbergmd (talk) 10:18, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Dude. AWESOME work! Well done! Nightscream (talk) 15:29, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sentence fragment in Live Earth section

The Live Earth section currently reads, "At the London Live Earth concert on July 7, 2007, which was broadcast live on the BBC. Before introducing the Red Hot Chili Peppers Rock called the crowd 'motherfuckers.'"

The period after "BBC" should be changed to a comma, and the "B" in "before" changed to lower case. I'd do it but I'm unable to edit the page.Chrysanthememe (talk) 11:39, 5 May 2008 (UTC)