advertisement
Matt Rife is a stand-up comedian.
The 28-year-old has been doing comedy since 2010.
advertisement
He was a cast member on Nick Cannon’s improv comedy show Wild ‘n Out from 2015 until 2017.
advertisement
Matt also had small roles in sitcoms Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Fresh Off the Boat.
But it was through TikTok that he became known worldwide. He currently has 18.2 million followers on the platform.
In 2021, he released the comedy special Only Fans, which he self-produced. It was inspired by his own TikToks.
While speaking with Cinemablend earlier this year, he explained how he financed the comedy special thanks to his TikTok followers.
He recalled, “So for OnlyFans, I was basically at a point where I had this hourlong material, this great hour long show I’ve been touring with for like a year and a half. I was so sick of doing the jokes and I was like, okay, I don’t have the money to shoot the special.”
Matt added, “Nobody wants to give me a special on any platform. How can I raise the money?”
The comedian continued, “So I was like, Let’s just try like a GoFundMe. like a fundraiser, and I was I was hopeful for like, you know, I could get 10 to 12 thousand… So that one was like entirely crowdfunded.”
He raised over $17,000 in fan donations. His special Only Fans is currently up on YouTube.
Since then, Matt has made other comedy specials on his own: Matthew Steven Rife and Walking Red Flag.
The popularity of his self-made comedy specials led to Netflix reaching out and giving him his biggest one yet.
On Sept. 8, it was announced that the streaming platform would be home to the hourlong special Matt Rife: Natural Selection.
When the Netflix news was shared, Matt told Deadline, “I think people are really going to like it. There’s something in there for everybody.”
That proved not to be the case, as the special received plenty of backlash.
In Natural Selection, Matt makes a joke about seeing a restaurant hostess in Baltimore sporting a black eye.
“My boy, who I was with, was like, ‘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,'” said Matt.
He continued, “And I was like, ‘Yeah, but I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn’t have that black eye.”
When the audience laughed, Matt responded, “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.”
When the special premiered on Nov. 15, many took to social media to call out the “joke.
“I think Matt Rife’s special is so bad because he’s trying SO hard to prove himself to other men through misogyny. It’s desperate and sad,” read a tweet.
Another person tweeted, “matt rife building his entire career off of women to then trash women in the netflix special and ruining his career was definitely expected.”
Someone else pointed out that the joke wasn’t the only problematic moment throughout the special.
They tweeted, “Kind of bummed out that Matt Rife’s entire Netflix special was pretty just him straight dogging on women for an hour.”
TikToker Drew Afualo, who has over 7 million followers, has a viral TikTok in which she explained why the inclusion of the domestic violence joke is so harmful to Matt’s fanbase, which is mostly made up of young women.
Drew and Matt recently were featured in Forbes’ Top 50 Creators list.
“What I do find interesting is admitting that you were purposely trying to alienate your female fanbase because you don’t take them f***ing seriously when it comes to comedy,” said Drew.
She continued, “The reason why that’s so interesting to me is if you exist in the social media and the majority of your audience comes from social media whether you pursue other endeavors…here’s a little fun fact for you all: brands, studios, companies, whatever you want to call them—they f***ing love female demographics, bitch.”
TikToker Dan Cashio agreed, making a TikTok sharing similar opinions.
“Dude. Bro. You betrayed your audience immediately. You told an unfunny joke about domestic violence against women and also included some misogyny about them in the kitchen,” said Dan.
He added, “Women made you, women made you. And that’s a f***ing great thing.”
Additionally, a clip resurfaced on TikTok from Wild ‘N Out, in which Matt is seen touching Zendaya’s face without consent while trying to get her to spit out water so she could lose a challenge.
It was since-deleted from the platform but was reshared on Twitter.
After hearing the overwhelming negative reactions to his special, Matt wrote on his Instagram Story, “If you’ve ever been offended by a joke I’ve told – here’s a link to my official apology.” The link led to a medical shop for special needs helmets.
Needless to say, people weren’t happy over his response.
Someone tweeted, “f**k you @mattrife people with disabilities aren’t your punchline after making a misogynistic dv joke. Be funny without being a gross human being or you’re just not funny???
Another person wrote on social media, “[Matt Rife] posts a link to an ‘apology’ but its [sic] really just this……BIG YIKE.”
It remains to be seen what’ll happen to Matt’s career.
