LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Amid Matt Rife dealing with massive backlash over a joke about domestic abuse in his Netflix special, 'Natural Selection', the comedian found himself in hot water over a 2015 clip of him and Zendaya.
Back then, Rife took part in an episode of 'Wild 'N Out', presented by Nick Cannon, along with the 'Euphoria' star. The resurfaced clip shows the two going against each other in a round of the show called 'Talking Spit'.
In this two-player game, one of the players sits with their mouth filled with water while the opponent tries to make them spit it out. The easiest way to succeed in this objective is to make the former player laugh, according to Unilad.
Matt Rife grabbed Zendaya's face on 'Wild 'N Out'
As per the video, Zendaya can be seen sitting with the water in her mouth when Matt takes his shot at making her laugh, telling the actress, "Look, you're mixed. I wanna be Black. Let's make a lifestyle movie!"
The line does not work, so he continues, "Spit that water out, I wanna get your number please."
Rife is then seen walking over to Zendaya and grabbing her face, to which other members of her team come rushing in objection. They said, "Don't be touching on her like that. She's too young."
At the time, Zendaya was about 19 years old, while Rife was 20.
Matt Rife faces backlash over domestic violence joke in his Netflix special 'Natural Selection'
Toward the beginning of the Netflix special 'Natural Selection', Rife did a bit on being served by a hostess with a "black eye" in Baltimore.
He said, "My boy, who I was with, was like, 'Yeah, I feel bad for her, man, I feel like they should put her in the kitchen or something where nobody has to see her face.' And I was like, 'Yeah, but I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn't have that black eye'."
Rife went on to slam "crystal girls," saying that the abused woman "should have had her protection crystals" on her. The misguided gag did not land well with the online audience, who have been slamming him since on social media.
Internet slams Matt Rife over resurfaced clip
Soon after Matt Rife's domestic violence joke went viral, the clip of him touching Zendaya's face also resurfaced, leading to him facing the ire of netizens.
One wrote, "yall just realizing Matt Rife isn't funny? do yall not remember when he was on Wild n Out and completely creeped out Zendaya?? mans a whole ick ? and definitely got a chin implant."
Another said, "Zendaya called it in 2017! She wasn’t having it with Matt Rife," while a person added, "Just seen the Matt Rife Zendaya Wild n Out thing and I have a bigger reason to hate him."
Someone else noted, "i could’ve told yall matt rife wasn’t funny cuz he couldn’t even make zendaya laugh when he was on wild n out."
A disgruntled netizen expressed, "Known Matt Rife was trash since he touched Zendaya's face on WildNOut w/o her consent. Was never funny just conventionally attractive, so y'all was out here, haha-ing at his bits that other comedians have done better, & his lame attempts at being edgy. Let 30 sec clips fool you."
