“Trying to Cancel Him”: 20 Years After “Offensive” Gorilla Joke on Shaquille O’Neal, Fans Wonder About Jeff Ross’ Fate in 2023 USA

Shaquille O’Neal is among the funniest personalities in the history of basketball. Whether it be meme-worthy facial expressions or roasting Charles Barkley on Inside The NBA, Shaq is constantly hilarious. Speaking of roasting Chuck, the guy gives just as good as he gets. As a result, Shaq has been the butt of many-a jokes courtesy of the crew. However, one of the biggest roast parties about the legend was curated by Shaq himself. At the event, the man who had the funniest, albeit slightly racist, jokes was Jeff Ross.

Recently, Shaq shared an Instagram story about the most controversial of those jokes that Ross aimed at the legend himself.

Jeff Ross’ old jokes on Shaquille O’Neal resurfaced courtesy of the Lakers Legend

Aptly titled the Roastmaster General, Ross made his name with 15 appearances on some of the best roasts on Comedy Central. During the 2003 event called Shaq’s All-Star Comedy Roast 2, Ross took the cake with a racist joke about Shaq.

The ‘jokes’ made at a roast are certainly not for the thin-skinned. That is especially the case for the ones delivered by Jeff Ross. There was a lot of hype regarding Jeff’s appearance and fans expected some feisty zingers from the legend.

Controversially, Ross suggested that Shaq’s knuckles looked scraped and then proceeded to ask him if he walked all the way to the roast. While most would expect a rivalry to blossom between the two as a result of the words, the two still remain good friends.

With Shaq a poltergeist himself, he took the joke in stride and even looked at his hands as if to confirm. While the two have moved on from the joke, Shaq posted a clip about the incident on his IG story. It was the second potentially offensive joke towards him that he’s posted in recent times, and it immediately caught the fans’ eye.

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With its offensive nature, fans were quick to wonder about the consequences of telling the joke in 2023.

Fans wonder about the state of Jeff if he made the joke today

Fans were quick to react to the video. Everyone had the same thought on their mind and one fan put it to paper…or the comment section, “If he were to say that joke today, they would be trying to cancel him.” Another fan pointed out the obvious, “Is that a gorilla joke?” as everyone was shocked about the racist undertones of the joke.

Some fans heartily appreciated the joke, “This was Jeff Ross’s best roast of all time!!” An older fan even remembered the event and gave a deeper description of the event, “He started off by saying this isnt a roast. This a BBQ lol. He told Shaq looking at him run up and down the court looks like a retard trying to fu**. Definitely a must see.” 

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While most would get embarrassed or angry about the joke, Shaq took it in stride and Jeff has even been associated with Inside The NBA. He was there to roast the entire set in 2020. What do you think? Did the jokes go too far? Let us know in the comments below!