Media Moments Matt Rife Can Never Erase

Matt Rife: either you love him or you hate him. While the edgy comedian has been in the comedy circuit for almost a decade, he gained major popularity in 2022 when one of his sets went viral on TikTok (the clip garnered over 5.5 million likes and 27,0000 comments). Rife, who is known for his fun crowd work, can be seen talking to a woman about her recent breakup with an Emergency Room worker who allegedly "did nothing with his life." Rife quips, "You broke up with a hero?!" From that point forward, he captured the hearts of women everywhere with his avant-garde humor and chiseled jawline, and his phone began to ring off the hook with work. Jimmy Fallon featured the comedian on his late-night talk show where he explained that if it wasn't for TikTok, he may have given up on comedy altogether. "I had been doing comedy for 11 years as of last year, 10 of it in LA. It beats you down hearing so much rejection. I couldn't get a special anywhere. I couldn't get on a TV show anywhere. All of these things just weren't adding up, and after a certain point you go, am I delusional? Maybe I'm not funny. Maybe I'm not supposed to do this. Then one random video changed everything," he told Fallon.

Rife's first Netflix special, "Matt Rife: Natural Section," debuted in November of 2023, and no one could have predicted the backlash he was about to face.

Matt Rife opened his infamous 2023 Netflix special with a joke about domestic violence. He talks about how he went to a restaurant and the waitress was sporting a black eye. "I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn't have that black eye," Rife joked. He went onto crack a joke at himself for opening the show with a domestic violence gag. Many fans erupted with anger on social media. "He's told some pretty seedy jokes on TikTok but I feel like one of the things you never play around with is domestic violence or r*pe jokes there are 10,000 ways to be funny and those are not one of them," someone tweeted. Others commented that he was pandering to men (he was formerly accused of pandering to women), when it was his female audience that helped him gain popularity in the first place. Despite the accusations, Rife told Variety, "I wanted to make this special for everybody. I pride myself on making my comedy for everybody. It's not for a specific demographic."

If people were expecting an apology, they were sorely mistaken. He stoked the fire even more after posting an Instagram story that read, "If you've ever been offended by a joke I've told, here's a link to my official apology." He included a link to a site that sold helmets for those with special needs. Yikes — cue the cancel culture train and negative headlines.

With Rife's behavior now under a microscope because of his Netflix special and response, he went from being a well-liked funny man to being scrutinized by the public for his past and present actions. Rife was no stranger to this, as he found himself in hot water back in 2016 when old tweets from 2012 resurfaced thanks to a cyber argument he was having with comedian Brandon Wardell over the platform known as X (formerly Twitter). Complex first reported that Wardell helped reveal old tweets that Rife attempted to delete. The tweets in question included Rife using homophobic and racial slurs and making light of serious issues like rape. Rife was quick to remind everyone that he was fifteen years old at the time and he is in no way racist or homophobic. Still, many didn't know who Rife was in 2017, had it not been for the fact that he was dating Kate Beckinsale and did a few episodes of "Wild 'N Out."

Rife didn't learn his lesson as he was blasted for a (deleted) tweet again in February 2020. He joked that everyone at the Oscars was "watching to see if the cast of Parasite coughs." This was a reference to the deadly COVID-19 virus, which hadn't made it to the U.S. just yet, however, cases were spreading rapidly in China. The cast of the Oscar-winning film is from Korea, and many referred to Rife as racist once again.

Kate Beckinsale is not only a gorgeous A-List actor, but judging from her social media, she appears to have a great sense of humor as well. When she first began dating Matt Rife in 2017, aside from their large age gap (Beckinsale was 43 at the time and Rife was 21), they seemed to be a great fit. Keeping their relationship under the radar, the couple split after a year. When Beckinsale began dating another millennial comedian, Pete Davidson, in 2019, TMZ caught up with Rife outside of a comedy club to see if he had any "advice" for Davidson when it came to dating the brunette starlet. "RUN," Rife unapologetically stated to the TMZ cameras. Ouch.

Rife added that their relationship was complicated with some ups and downs, and when asked if he'd ever get back together with Beckinsale, he barely had to think about his answer. "No, absolutely not," he blurted out. Double ouch. Although it took him almost 4 years to realize he probably shouldn't have said those things, he did eventually apologize publicly. "I regret saying that," Rife mentioned to Elle (via Us Weekly). "Pete, if you're out there, sorry I said that. Kate, I also apologize that I said that. I shouldn't have said that." It's rare to get a genuine apology from Matt Rife, so we'd consider this one a win!

While he was a guest on the Stiff Socks Podcast with comedians Michael Blaustein and Trevor Wallace, Rife made headlines yet again for an offensive discussion, specifically about women. While the entire podcast could be considered totally misogynistic, this segment particularly was inappropriate, as the three comedians gossiped about an intimate female body part that they don't have: a vagina. Rife starts out by saying "he doesn't like the way it looks, while Wallace shouts that it looks like a "smashed granola bar."

The trio gets a bit more graphic as they go into further detail about the female nether region, and Rife makes a crack about not wanting to "thumb wrestle" a girl that he's about to sleep with (because of the way her anatomy looks). Metro UK featured scientist and sex educator Zoya Ali, who commented on the effects that these conversations have on women. "The question arises as to why we continue to impose such standards on women, and endorse the objectification of individuals, while valuing them solely based on their physical appearance. Billion-dollar industries thrive on capitalizing on these insecurities by promoting products like vaginal tighteners, whiteners, and fresheners, promising to make one's genitalia 'normal.' Every vulva is unique, coming in various shapes, sizes, and shades."

To add insult to injury, one of his former flames, Brooke Schofield, explained that his insults seemed to describe her anatomy specifically.

A few months prior to Rife's Netflix special airing, he was a guest on the Cancelled with Tana Mongeau podcast and dropped some interesting comments about cancel culture and his blossoming career. As a sidebar, Tana Mongeau's co-host happens to be none other than Brooke Schofield, the woman who he crudely alluded to on the Stiff Socks podcast. What a gentleman, right?

On Cancelled, he claimed that jealousy drove the criticism toward him. Rife and the female hosts then went into detail about how he gets a bit bothered that women would yell at him to "take his pants off" while he was in the middle of a live set, and how his audience is slowly but surely becoming more male heavy as opposed to only women. He also claims that if anyone is going to be offended by any of his jokes, they should go "cry by themselves," because it's not his responsibility as a comedian. 

A lot of Matt Rife's criticism derives from those who believe he takes his female fanbase "for granted." Again, many believe that women are why Rife became popular in the first place. Sure, he's kind of funny, but he's also conventionally handsome. In 2021, Rife even named his self-funded debut comedy special "Only Fans" because his fans literally made "Matt Rife Only Fans" a popular search on Google. It would appear that he's playing into his good looks if he publicly boasted that his fans wished for an Only Fans account. However, if you go down the Rife rabbit hole, you'll see quite a few bits where he claims he "hates being good looking." 

A content creator poked fun at clips of Rife pointing to his chiseled face saying, "I don't like this anymore than you guys do." The creator goes on to make the same "Zoolander" type of face that Rife makes while he announces that he doesn't like being handsome. In the clip, Rife makes a circular motion with his hands around his face claiming, "This sh*t ...it just happened." Rife has been questioned about lip filler and jaw-line enhancement, but he has only come clean about getting veneers (his teeth looked much different if you go back and watch episodes of "Wild N' Out"). Regardless, Matt Rife's appearance has undeniably, drastically transformed.

On a 2015 episode of Nick Cannon's MTV show, "Wild 'N Out," Rife did less than impress as a 17-year old comedian trying to make it in LA. This may be one of the cringiest clips we've ever seen — and we've seen a lot. On the improv and comedy game show, Cannon puts two groups of comedians against each other as they compete over a series of silly improv games. Each comedy team is led by Nick Cannon and a celebrity guest judge, and Queen Zendaya just happened to be the guest judge on this particular episode. Here's where the cringe begins: Rife approaches her and says, "Look you're mixed. I wanna be black, so let's make a lifestyle." Zendaya, who's holding a mouthful of water, has zero trouble not laughing. Rife decides to kick it up a notch and approaches the starlet and grabs her face. "Spit that water out so I can get your number." Zendaya is a great sport, but the way she leans back with the uncomfortable look in her eyes spoke volumes. Other comedians noticed as well, and called Rife out for making her uncomfortable.

Since the internet never forgets, once Rife's Netflix special came out, this awkward clip made its debut, and many people were stunned. One X user stated, "had I known Matt Rife was the same guy on Wild N Out that touched Zendaya's face, I would've instantly hated him." 

In a seriously strange turn of events, Rife's name made headlines, but not because of something he said. Lisa Ann, who claimed to be his former radio co-host, was escorted out of his Radio City Music Hall show by the New York Police Department for allegedly using her cell phone and being drunk and disorderly (the NYPD claimed they received a call from someone who complained). Lisa Ann is also a former adult film star known for her work playing "Sarah Palin," in various adult films, but claimed she and Rife were friends who co-hosted a radio show together (no one seems to have heard of said radio show). She denies all claims of being drunk and disorderly.

Lisa Ann was placed under arrest and held in handcuffs for about 45 minutes while they waited for an ambulance to arrive because no police were available to escort her to the station, per TMZ. They eventually agreed to not press charges or place Lisa Ann on any type of hold as long as she promised to not go back to the show, to which she agreed. Lisa Ann later took to the platform X to claim her innocence with a photo that proves she was not using her phone or being loud. "In this photo, I am seated facing the stage with my arm over my chair watching the show. The person on the phone was not me," it read. Rife didn't publicly comment.