- Jamie Foxx pokes fun at Sean “Diddy” Combs in his new comedy special, “What Had Happened Was.”
- “The internet said that Puffy tried to kill me,” he says. “I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he?'”
- “Hell naw,” Foxx continues. “I left them parties early. I was out by 9.”
In his new comedy special, Jamie Foxx makes time amid emotional revelations about his recent health scare and spot-on celebrity impressions to poke fun at Sean “Diddy” Combs, who’s awaiting trial in jail on three felony charges including sex trafficking.
In the opening minutes of “What Had Happened Was,” which premiered Tuesday on Netflix, Foxx jokes about the conspiracy theories that surrounded his 2023 hospitalization and subsequent withdrawal from the public eye. (These included theories that he was secretly dead and others that he’d been cloned.)
In the special, Foxx reveals that he suffered a stroke while he was filming a Netflix movie in Atlanta.
“Atlanta saved my life. The internet was trying to kill me, though. The internet said that Puffy tried to kill me,” Foxx says, referring to the stage name Combs used in the ’90s. “That’s what the internet was saying. I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he?'”
Foxx waits a beat for laughter and then assures the crowd that he’s not connected to Combs’ legal troubles.
“Hell naw, n****. I left them parties early. I was out by 9,” Foxx says. “‘Something don’t look right, n****. It’s slippery in here, n****.”
Throughout his career as a rapper and founder of Bad Boy Records, Combs was famous for throwing lavish events with star-studded guest lists, including annual white parties in the Hamptons.
Back in 2018, Foxx told Stephen Colbert that he “started hanging out with Puff back in the day” and he would “watch him throw parties.” Foxx also joked that Combs showed up to one of his own parties with the FBI in tow.
“Puff was always sort of dangerous,” Foxx said, “so he had all kinds of people following him.”
In recent months, Combs has been sued by multiple people for sexual assault and rape, many of whom alleged they were attacked at these parties. Other celebrities have been named as co-defendants in various lawsuits, most recently Jay-Z.
Both Combs and Jay-Z have denied all allegations.
In September, Combs was arrested and indicted on racketeering and sex-trafficking charges by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
Prosecutors allege Combs orchestrated sexual performances called “Freak Offs,” described in his indictment as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the indictment, and his lawyers have said he will fight the charges at a trial scheduled to begin May 5.
There’s been no suggestion from prosecutors that other celebrities will be charged in the case, though US Attorney Damian Williams said in response to a question from Business Insider that “nothing is off the table.”
Later in the comedy special, Foxx discusses his post-stroke recovery and brushes with death, telling the audience that he didn’t walk toward the clichéd light — but he did see a tunnel.
“It was hot in that tunnel. I thought, shit, have I gone to the wrong place?” he jokes. “I looked at the end of the tunnel and I thought I saw the devil saying, ‘Come on.’ Or was that Puffy?”
He then cracks a joke about the March raids on Combs’ Florida and California mansions, during which law enforcement said they seized “various Freak Off supplies” that included narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant.
“If that was Puffy he had a flaming bottle of Johnson and… no, I’m just kidding,” Foxx said.
A rep for Combs did not immediately respond to BI’s request for comment.
