Matt Rife reacts to Netflix special domestic violence joke backlash

Matt Rife is under fire for making a joke about domestic violence in his new Netflix special — but he doesn’t seem too concerned.

The comedian, 28, sarcastically responded to critics who slammed him for his “sexist” remarks by posting a link for special needs helmets.

“If you’ve ever been offended by a joke I’ve told,” Rife, 28, wrote over a picture of himself in an Instagram Story on Monday. “Here’s a link to my official apology.”

The link, which read “Tap to solve your issue,” brought users to a site that is dedicated to selling special needs helmets.

“We on the naughty list,” he captioned a second Story, followed by a wink face emoji and another link that read: “This one’s real this time.”

The second link, however, sent users to Rife’s YouTube page where he introduces a bit called “Bad Santa.”

Rife, who rose to fame after gaining a massive TikTok following, opened up his special “Natural Selection” with the domestic abuse joke.

According to the embattled comic, he once visited a restaurant in “rachet” Baltimore where “the hostess who seats you had a black eye.”

“A full black eye,” he continued. “It wasn’t like, ‘What happened?’ It was pretty obvious what happened.”

”But we couldn’t get over, like, this is the face of the company? This is who you have greeting people,” he continued. “And 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’s special, which was released on Nov. 15, immediately drew the ire of several X (formerly Twitter) users.

“The way women catapulted Matt Rife into popularity and the second he gets a comedy special on Netflix he immediately betrays them with a joke about domestic violence crazy innit,” one user slammed.

“The girls and gays were Matt Rife‘s biggest demographic and he used his Netflix special to pander to toxic masculinity,” another chastised, adding: “It feels like a betrayal.”

“Not Matt Rife building his platform on catering to his female audience and then opening his Netflix special with a domestic violence joke,” a third person commented.

Others were equally displeased with the comedian’s lack of sincerity when it came to his response to the backlash.

“Matt Rife making a sexist/DV ‘joke’ … then sending people to a website to special needs helmets as his ‘apology.’”one user posted. “There’s a difference between an edgy joke and just being disrespectful and distasteful.”

“Oh good. Ableism to chase the misogyny,” another user spat.

The Post reached out to Rife for comment.

Rife previously told Variety that his special was “way more for guys.”

“One thing I wanted to tackle in this special was showing people that, despite what you think about me online, I don’t pander my career to women,” Rife said. “I would argue [‘Natural Selection’] is way more for guys.”

When asked if he was worried about alienating his audience with his material, the comic said you have to “find your audience.”

“You don’t know what other people are into and that’s why you have to go out there and do your comedy and just lay it all out there, vulnerably, to find your audience,” he told the outlet. “The way I look at it is, as a comedian everything comes down to intent.”

“I know for me, everything that leaves my mouth on stage is purely with the intention of making people laugh, he added. “It’s never any deeper, never any more or never any less than that.”

This is not the first time Rife has gotten in trouble for his content.

In February, he was slammed after making an offensive comment about women’s bodies while appearing on the “Stiff Socks” podcast.

Rife later told the New York Times that the backlash from the comment was “an insane concept” to him since his job was to make people laugh.