Passengers on Delta Air Lines flights will no longer have the option to watch Chris Rock's 2008 Emmy Award winning stand-up, "Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger." The special is being pulled this week, following complaints deeming one of Rock's routines homophobic. In a statement apologizing to customers, a spokesperson for the airline cited Rock's use of a gay slur in admitting it had failed to hold itself accountable to its policy of "excluding onboard programming that includes content featuring explicit language, slurs, extreme violence, and explicit scenes."
The segment in question involves Rock making reference to the firing of actor Isaiah Washington from Grey's Anatomy after he used the slur against co-star T.R. Knight. After giving a spiel on how he allows the context in which a word is used dictate whether or not it is offensive, Rock defends a situation in which he sees it might be appropriate. "What if the person that he called a f****t, was acting like a f****t? ... Because you don't have to be gay to act like a f****t," Rock says, before presenting a scenario in which he is holding up traffic while singing along to Gwen Stefani. "If you're in that car behind me you have a right to say 'Aye f****t, the light's about to change!"
The original complaint can be traced back to a Grindr employee by the name of Jeremy Foreshew, GayTravel reports. "When you think of the number of people who fly Delta every day and have access to that language… it just shocked me," said Foreshew.
Source: complex.com
