Jamie Foxx is thankful — thankful he survived a stroke, thankful to the doctors and nurses who helped save his life, and thankful to Netflix for giving him the opportunity to bare his soul in the stand-up special, What Had Happened Was.
“It was daunting,” Foxx said about putting the special together and discussing his health scare on stage.
The actor and comedian spoke candidly about the production process, and got a few things off this chest on May 29, at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles.
Foxx, 57, was the headliner at Netflix’s All-Star Comedy Night for awards voters ahead of Emmy nomination balloting, which starts on June 12.
The Oscar-winning star’s daughter Corinne Foxx moderated the conversation.
Related: Jamie Foxx Reveals He Suffered a Brain Bleed and Stroke – ‘I Don’t Remember 20 Days’
Jamie Foxx wore an all-black ensemble with cut-outs and nearly exposed himself as he told jokes and worked the stage.
“Careful with the holes, keep it PG,” Corinne warned her dad.
Almost on cue, Jamie began to berate celebrity gossip outlet TMZ and embattled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
“I just feel like TMZ is gonna be like, ‘Jamie Foxx was dicking around.’ That TMZ shit, I hate that f–king sound,” he said before imitating TMZ’s signature “dum, dum, dum” sound effect.
He then mocked the outlet’s narrator: “Not since Diddy have we seen…”
“I’m joking, I’m kidding,” he said as some people in the audience laughed nervously. But Foxx was just getting started.
“That Diddy shit is crazy, huh? I don’t know if he’s going to jail, but he’s a nasty motherf–ker. Shit! Am I right? Especially for our community,” the comedian continued. “[For] white people, it’s cool, but Black people are like, that was our hero. All that goddamn baby oil, boy. Then, the urine.”
Corinne shot her dad a look as if to say, let’s get back to talking about the special.
“Oh, that’s right. It’s the Emmys. My bad, I’m sorry, so sorry.” Jamie Foxx said sarcastically.
Federal prosecutors have charged Diddy with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Foxx said he was done talking about the mogul, which was probably a relief to some people in the audience, who seemed uncomfortable or unaware of what he was talking about.
But the jokes continued to fly and some of us loved it.
He compared Diddy’s court case to the 1999 Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence prison comedy Life.
“When I watch the trial, all I think of is Life. Martin Lawrence talking to Eddie Murphy, ‘Why you so nasty, Ray? ‘Cause I’m my nasty motherf–ker.’ Why you so nasty, Diddy? ‘Cause I’m a nasty motherf–ker. Take that, take that, take that.’ That makes you listen to that differently. What are we taking, because I don’t want any of that,” Foxx said.
He later quipped, “For the Black people in here, you know how that hurts us, because Diddy was [known for] ‘It’s All About the Benjamins,’ that was our whole culture. Now it’s all about the baby oil.”
Foxx was one of eight comics to take the stage at the event. The others included Fortune Feimster, Sarah Silverman, Tom Segura, Mike Birbiglia, Andrew Schulz, Michelle Buteau, and Bert Kreischer.
Silverman talked about recording her PostMortem special after losing her father and stepmother days apart from each other.
Feimster said her Crushing It special addresses accidentally honeymooning with her wife in the Maldives, where it’s illegal to be gay.
Buteau drew praise from the audience for making history with her A Buteau-ful Mind Netflix offering, as the first woman to film a stand-up special at Radio City Music Hall.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos attended the gathering as well. But it was Jamie Foxx who nearly stole the show.
He did impressions of the Notorious B.I.G. and Denzel Washington, mocked Chris Rock for getting slapped by Will Smith, went on a tirade about social media stars being “fake” celebrities, and broke into song while discussing the music in What Had Happened Was.
Foxx said he began incorporating songs into his comedy routines after attending college on a music scholarship.
“My thing was singing to sort of separate myself from the other comedians,” he explained.
He pointed to pictures on the walls at the venue of comedy greats, and said when he moved to L.A. from Texas, he would sneak into The Comedy Store to watch his idols.
“It was like the Jurassic Park of f–king stars. You’d see Robin Williams… you’d see your hero, Eddie Murphy,” he recalled.
Foxx suffered his stroke in April 2023, while he was in Georgia filming the Netflix movie Back in Action.
He said he prayed, took stock of his life, and hoped that one day he would also be “considered great.”
Corinne corrected him and said, “Dad, you are one of the greats.”
Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was is currently streaming on Netflix.
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