Matt Rife's Osama bin Laden Remark Goes Viral

A comment comedian Matt Rife made about Osama bin Laden has gone viral—and it might not be for the reason he hoped.

People online have resurfaced an old clip of the comedian after he was criticized for making a joke that many labeled as insensitive during his November 15 Netflix special, Natural Selection. During the show, he joked about domestic violence when he implied that a woman who served him in a restaurant with a black eye had received it because her cooking was bad.

Rife then doubled down on the joke when, in an Instagram story that followed, he offered a fake apology, writing: "If you've ever been offended by a joke I've told—here's a link to my official apology."

The link read "tap to solve your issue" and led people to a website selling helmets for people with special needs.

Now people are mocking him for comments he made during his appearance on the CANCELLED with Tana Mongeau podcast on June 9. Hosted by Mongeau and Brooke Schofield, the trio discussed cancel culture, touring as a comedian, trauma and "glowing up." Near the end of the conversation, they talked about hate and jealousy.

"Here's a very humbling experience, I guess epiphany, that I've had recently. Because so many f****** people hate me, really for no reason, and it really made me realize people only hate people they're jealous of," Rife said. "I've been guilty of hating people and when I really sat back and thought about it, it was because I was jealous of where that person was in their life, I thought maybe they got an opportunity that I should have gotten."

He added: "And now that I'm doing so much better for myself, I don't have that energy towards anybody, I really don't. I'm really happy and really lucky to be where I'm at right now so I don't have like, a beef, with anybody."

Mongeau was quick to respond, when she joked: "That was a really, really good well-rounded answer, I'm trying to wrap my head around… do you think people who hate Osama Bin Laden are jealous of him?"

Without missing a beat, Rife said, "yeah," before adding: "Of course, they're mad that he was the one calling the shots. Everyone wants to be the one holding the remote."

A condensed version of this portion of the interview has gone viral on X, formerly Twitter, with many people poking fun at the comedian. Newsweek reached out to a representative of Rife's for comment via email Friday.

"Crying over Matt Rife on Tana's podcast looking like an idiot," one user said alongside the edited clip on November 25.

As of December 1, the video had been viewed more than 35 million times.

Its virality didn't end there, as when someone else retweeted the post on November 28, the clip was viewed 13 million times by December 1. The different X user added: "Last five seconds of this changed my life."

People took to the replies to share their thoughts on the exchange, with many criticizing Rife while praising Mongeau's response.

"Look I'm no fan of Tana but she definitely knows how to get people to eat their own words lmao," one person wrote.

"The way she flipped it so quick that he started to say yes! 🤣," said another.

"The way that one thing she said is funnier than anything I've seen Matt Rife say," a third person commented.

"It's giving career-ending I'm afraid," said another.

Others pointed out that they thought his "humbling epiphany" wasn't actually that humbling at all.

"'I had the humbling epiphany that everyone who hates me is just jealous of me' 😂 is this guy for real?" one person asked.

"My thing is, what about this 'epiphany' is humbling? it humbles you to assume all criticism is just jealousy??? like he was just talking," said another.

A third added: "It's lowkey quite telling that when he's trying to figure out why people don't like him he only looks at it through his own lens and experiences rather than trying to emphasize or understand from their pov at all."

While Rife has faced a fair amount of criticism recently, PR crisis management expert Molly McPherson said she thinks he will manage to land on his feet. Discussing the backlash over his Netflix special, she said he is "going to dodge the bullet."

"He is a part of bro culture, bro comedian culture, such as Joe Rogan who has a top podcast for a reason because people listen to it, they follow him and if there's a genre that makes money, there's going to be more people who do it," she said in a TikTok video. "If he didn't double down he would have lost his comedy credentials."