As a balance to all of the traditional holiday fare out there, one of the best streaming picks of the week isn’t one of the many Christmas movies hitting this season, but an emotionally charged stand-up performance from Jamie Foxx. (Or “Jamie Motherfuckin’ Foxx” as he puts it several times.) Everyone with a Netflix subscription should stream the new special Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was to hear the comedian’s candid anecdotal explanation about his April 2023 medical emergency.
Oh, and also to hear a lot of hilarious sidebars and sporadic impressions, since this IS Jamie Foxx after all. And yes, the In Living Color vet somehow managed to slip in a quick roast slamming the currently imprisoned music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs in the midst of what is often a teary-eyed tale.
In his special, Foxx revealed that it was a brain bleed that sparked the headache that sent him to the hospital, resulting in a stroke, and he lost memory of 20 days of his life around the time. He talked about the process of his sister taking him to the hospital and then going under for an operation, which is where he referenced the former rapper facing a variety of sexual assault accusations. As the They Cloned Tyrone actor put it:
I say this all the time. I saw the tunnel. I didn’t see the light.I was in a tunnel, though. It was hot in that tunnel. [pulls at his shirt] ‘Shit, am I going to the wrong place in this motherfucker?’ Cause I looked at the end of the tunnel, and I thought I saw the devil, like, ‘Come on, —.’ Or was that Puffy?
Understandably, that comment sparked a lot of surprised laughter throughout the crowd. At to his credit, the news about Diddy was quite current at the time, with the news about mass amounts of baby oil being found on Combs’ property coming out just a couple of weeks prior to Foxx performing his special. (He recorded it on October 5 at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, GA.)
Foxx doubled down slightly after the laughs, saying:
I’m fucking around. But if it was Puffy, he had a flamin’ bottle of Johnson & John…no, I’m just kiddin’. [Imitating Diddy.] ‘Come on in here, —.’ No, I’m just kidding.
Coincidentally enough, as it were, Jamie Foxx also went into a Jay-Z impression, which followed his impression of Mike Tyson and Dave Chappelle, but came before he broke his Donald Trump voice out. The Grammy-winning rapper was linked with Diddy and was accused of raping a minor in a lawsuit that went public this week (though it didn’t stop him from celebrating Blue Ivy’s Mufasa premiere with his wife and kid).
Foxx dropped Diddy’s name later in the special as well, in reference to the bizarre rumors that he was cloned, possibly by the rapper, if he wasn’t his normally jokey and smiling self. But no clones here. Just good ol’ O.G. Jamie Foxx. His story about Halle Berry proved that and then some.
Complete with a guitar-picking appearance from his daughter Annalise and a piano performance, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was is available to stream in full on Netflix.