"No, he can't be on all the time," --Malaak Rock, in response to Oprah's query about comedy in the home.
When Malaak appeared on Oprah with her husband, the undercurrent of tension between Rock and wife was discernible. Malaak's reservations could be read in her face, her husband as passive as if he needed to be reigned in for premature ejaculation while she was calculating fortune and Chris's net worth as a bankable asset, and Rock's currency is obviously under threat of hyperinflation.
In generational terms, why Rock has been successful as a comedian is a legitimate query. Bill Cosby may not be Mr. Clean, to recaption Joan's protest about the conspiracy of silence surrounding the allegations toppling the old man, but he did not devalue education, self-reliance. For those of a certain generational cast, permission to mourn is understandable. Rock, with Schneider behind him as a producer, disparaged higher education. What substance there was in Everybody Hates Chris was overwhelmed by clashing cymbals and Rock's high voice, always in an exasperated panic mode.
Not to say Rock is incapable of eliciting laughter from those who coast on C's, but who has a vested interest in keeping him in the public eye? His agent? His union? John Lewis? People like Coates? Why does Access Hollywood disseminate such innocuous articles about the B list?
Malaak was the matriarchal force in this spousal union, and when applied correctly, there is no harm in being chirpy. Many women relate to Winfrey's struggle with chips, but the emphasis here is on the level of correction. Why marry a frog who needs pyrotechnics to coax the caboose? Foiled against Freeman in Betty, a fugue state on overdrive, the bullied boy was passable. All Americans understand the juxtaposition of violence as one kind of economic capital against the subversive following of soap opera plots, but that was nearly 15 years ago.
I would not mind making friends with a woman like Joan Tarshis, in part because despite our experiences being exclusive to ourselves, my sympathy for her struggle to deal with her violation is intuitive. Multiply her rape allegations by 15, maybe 20, and then weigh venom in that context.
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