Celebs Who Can't Stand Matt Rife

Matt Rife blew up on social media, but now some of his harshest criticism from other celebs is coming from inside the house. He's received a lot of blowback for the material that he used for his "Natural Selection" comedy special. Netflix provided him with a platform to joke about domestic violence, and when the inevitable backlash came, he didn't admit to making a mistake. Instead, he played a juvenile prank on everyone who clicked on a link to his "apology" in his Instagram Story. It led to a website that offers special-needs helmets — so Rife apparently finds ableist jokes amusing, too.

Before TikTok introduced Rife to his core audience of enamored female fans, he came under far less scrutiny whenever he said or did something controversial. However, after Rife dated Kate Beckinsale, he did become a temporary tabloid novelty by telling TMZ that Pete Davidson should "run" from her. (At the time, Beckinsale and the "SNL" star were dating.) Had Rife said this in 2023 rather than 2019, he'd get quite the chastising on TikTok. Likewise regarding his response to a 2018 photo of Mason Ramsey, the little boy who went viral for yodeling in Walmart. Rife tweeted, "F***s on your forehead? Some gum?" The comedian was actually apologetic when Ramsey informed him that it was not gum, but a birthmark.

Rife's bad behavior went largely ignored by celebrities back then, but this is not the case anymore.

When TikToker Bunny Hedaya allowed her seven-year-old son, Aiden, to critique "Natural Selection" on Instagram, Matt Rife took notice. Aiden ends his brief video about Rife by saying, "You're mean to girls." However, Aiden's suggestion that Rife should have used Saturn, not Jupiter, in a joke about a planet with rings is what the comedian decided to address. "Jupiter also has [a] ring," Rife wrote in the comments. Unfortunately, he didn't stop at defending his joke. "Santa Claus isn't real," he added. "Your mom buys you presents with the money she makes on OnlyFans. Good luck." Hedaya later turned off the post's comments.

On TikTok, Hedaya explained that Aiden filmed the video because he's fascinated with space, and she was being tagged by fans who saw Rife's planet joke. She called the comic out for picking a fight with a six-year-old over a harmless video and slammed Rife for making the sexist assumption that she has an OnlyFans page because she's a woman with a social media following. Addressing Rife directly, she stated, "You can't accept the fact that people may like women for their personalities. We know you don't have one."

Rife previously told Variety that he was catering to a male audience with "Natural Selection," and Hedaya criticized him for forsaking the female fans that made him so successful. "I will gladly take your audience because we know you can't satisfy them anyways," she said. Ouch.

Former adult film star Mia Khalifa joined the chorus of Matt Rife critics on X, formerly known as Twitter, after she saw a Pop Crave tweet about the comedian. It referenced Rife's erroneous Instagram comment suggesting that Bunny Hedaya purchases her son's Christmas presents with earnings from OnlyFans. "Maybe if he had an OnlyFans he'd be able to afford a better injector for that filler," Khalifa quipped.

In a 2023 appearance on the "Off the Vine" podcast, Rife denied rumors that he's had work done on his face. However, he's not completely opposed to cosmetic procedures. During his "Only Fans" special, he reveals that he had surgery on his nipples to remove breast tissue that had started growing beneath them. Rife says that the surgery cost $9,000, and his joke about it takes a transphobic turn when he tells his audience that he considered getting breast implants instead and competing in women's sports. 

Speaking of Rife's "Only Fans" special, he's not actually against making money from the platform known for its sexually explicit content. On "Off the Vine," he told Kaitlyn Bristowe that he partnered with OnlyFans after the company learned about his special's name and reached out to him. Khalifa may be interested to know that he even created an account on the website. However, the most skin he showed was his bare chest.

Matt Rife rails about how society is well, rife, with people who get offended by his unfiltered bro brand of comedy — and he takes offense when they voice their offense. On the "Cancelled with Tana Mongeau" podcast, he shared his thoughts about his vocal critics. "How privileged are you to think you never have to hear anything you don't like in your entire life? That's f***ing insane," he said. Rife also discussed the topic of touchy subjects in a comedy roundtable for Variety, where he was joined by Tom Segura, Marlon Wayans, and Sam Jay. Variety included a quote from Wayans in the title of an article about the discussion: "You can't be afraid to offend."

Kathy Griffin tweeted a screenshot of the title and wrote, "Lol. Ok. It's a little different for male comics, but please tell me all about it, fellas." Her post included an eye-roll emoji. She was possibly thinking about her brush with cancellation after she posed with a Donald Trump mask covered with fake blood. When the comedian decided not to worry about offending Trump and his supporters, she wound up under federal investigation. "They were considering charging me with the crime of conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States," Griffin said on "Late Night with Seth Meyers." [1:59] Rife's roundtable argument that offensive jokes are okay as long as your intentions are good probably wouldn't fly in that situation.

During a live discussion at the New York Public Library, comedian Marc Maron was asked about how he felt about Matt Rife seemingly trying to generate controversy to further his career. "He's the new It boy of sh***ty comedy," Maron said. "He's taken a big chance in his career right now to s*** on the mostly female audience that he accumulated through social media to sort of kiss up to these pseudo edgelords."

The day after Maron's discussion was uploaded to YouTube, Jordan Peterson's podcast interview with Rife went live. This was a big indicator that Rife was doing exactly as Maron said and trying to pull off a drastic rebrand. Peterson is a right-wing figure who is popular with the incel crowd. Like Rife, he also has a habit of making controversial remarks; in an interview with The New York Times, he argued that society should be patriarchal and suggested that what violent men who feel the urge to kill need is "enforced monogamy." He's also virulently transphobic. 

During their podcast interview, Rife told Peterson, "I'm a huge fan, man." Peterson returned the love by praising Rife's domestic violence joke. "You added some nice kitchen-related misogyny to that very rapidly which was good," he said. Maron predicted that Rife's attempt to find a new fanbase of men who admire the likes of Peterson is not going to end well.

On her "Just Trish" podcast, YouTuber Trisha Paytas revealed that she tried and failed to watch Matt Rife's Netflix special. "Matt Rife is so painfully unfunny," she said. Maybe some of Rife's fans subconsciously agree with her; Collider observed that the crowd doesn't laugh much at all during "Natural Selection." Instead, they use applause and cheering to let Rife know that they're happy to be there looking at him. Paytas even suggested that a laugh track was possibly added to the special, and she said that its 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes wasn't low enough.

Rife is aware that his looks are a big part of his appeal; during his "Only Fans" special, he complains about being disliked for being good-looking. Paytas shared that she finds his whining about pretty people problems irritating and described Rife as "not that hot."

Paytas is in the camp that believes Rife made a big mistake by making jokes that might disgust some of his female fans so much that they abandon him. "Matt Rife is flopping in real-time and just like, destroying his career," she said. She also had something to say to the women who are continuing to defend Rife after he joked about domestic violence and insinuated that he values male fans more. "That's so embarrassing for you. He doesn't care about you," she said. "It really just screams like thirsty, pathetic, desperate."

During a December 2023 episode of "Cancelled," podcaster Brooke Schofield made a revelation that probably dropped a few jaws: She had a fling with Matt Rife. The comedian bizarrely acted like their past relationship was nonexistent when he appeared on "Cancelled" in June 2023, which made the interview excruciatingly awkward for Schofield.

Schofield recounted how Rife stood her up one night when they were seeing each other, which stung quite a bit. Rife later told her that he cared about her a lot but was too busy for a relationship. "He says, 'I haven't felt this way about anybody in so long and I've been dreading telling you,'" Schofield recalled to her co-host Tana Mongeau. She felt like they parted on good terms and retained warm feelings about Rife after their split — until she was invited to join a group chat with seven other women who were dating the comedian at the same time she was. According to Schofield, Rife told her that he didn't want her to even spend time with her male friends while they were together, so yeah, she had ample reason to be upset. When she tried to confront Rife about the other women via text, he blocked her.

Schofield concluded her tale by saying of Rife, "He does in fact hate women, especially me." As for Mongeau, she summed up her feelings about the comedian with three words: "F*** Matt Rife."