(First, though, viewers had to attend to the business of getting into the virtual venue. His delivery works when nothing else does-and, in “Selective Outrage,” little did. Yet Rock reminds us of his icon status simply by opening his mouth. None of the jokes will rise to the level of iconic, or even memorable, I’m afraid. During the special, Rock’s signature delivery became a lifeline, elevating the only mildly amusing, and sustaining the breath in even the drabbest material. Sound bites from that old material were piped over footage of Rock as he took to the stage Saturday night for “Selective Outrage,” a comedy special that aired on Netflix as the platform’s first experiment in live broadcasting. Such rhythms imprint in memory his most famous lines: “I ain’t scared of Al Qaeda, I’m scared of Al Crack-a.” Chris Rockian prosody features heavy-footed consonance-a spittle-ful “P” in “poor” or “F” in “fucking”-and unusual syllabic emphases.

Delivery is important in any form of storytelling, and in observational comedy cadence is the especial engine of wit. You know what I mean, but it’s not sufficiently replicable in writing-and that is rather the point.

Chris rock playing spookie on meth