Comedian Matt Rife is at the center of yet another bizarre controversy.
And this time, even “edgy” humor fans who might usually defend Rife are conceding that the comic may have gone too far.
You see, this wasn’t a case of Rife lashing out at a heckler on stage. Rather, he took to social media to encourage a fan with autism to kill himself.
Here’s the deal: Matt and a business partner named Elton Castee recently purchased the Haunted Warren Museum in Massachusetts.
The place was formerly owned by famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and it houses the notorious haunted Annabelle doll.
Rife has taken some flak from the paranormal investigation community for seemingly not taking the museum seriously and for charging outrageous ticket prices.
One such investigator, Chris Mac, did not harshly criticize Matt (at least not that we know of), but did comment on one of his posts with some historical context about the Salem Witch Trials.
And for some reason, that comment prompted a scorched earth response from Matt:
“Sir, you are a lifeless douchebag. Please remove yourself from this earth. Absolutely nobody is reading your novels in these comments. You do not matter to anybody,” he wrote (via TMZ), adding:
“The event has already sold thousands of tickets. Now watch as I block you and you fall back into nonexistence
“Now am going move forward with all this nonsense garbage what Matt said and Elton Castee control your mentor Matt or get Matt therapy I don’t want ever ever want see Matt bully a person with autism again do I make myself clear not ok to say with a person with autism I have autism,” Mac shot back in response.
Rife has not yet responded, but Mac has quite a few supporters who have come to his defense.
Sources close to Rife explain that he is frequently bullied in the comments of his posts.
They explain that he has reached the point where he frequently replies in brutal fashion, and more often than not, the troll just quietly deletes their comment and goes away.
The insiders note that there is crucial context missing in this situation. Whatever the case, Matt is receiving a whole lot of flak today.
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