What had happened wasJamie Foxx’s highly anticipated Netflix stand-up comedy special begins streaming on Netflix on December 10th.

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Parrish Lewis/Netflix

Jamie Foxx fans may need a tissue for this special and not just to wipe away tears from laughing out loud.

In his new Netflix special What had happened wasThe Oscar winner finally explains the “medical emergency” that landed him in the hospital.

The backstory: In April 2023, during the filming of the film Back in action In Atlanta, Foxx collapsed and spent 20 days in the hospital. “I’ve gone to hell and back,” he explained in a heartfelt Instagram video after his release.

But Foxx, his family and his associates stayed quiet on the details because he “didn’t want his fans to see him like that.”

“Atlanta saved my life, but the internet tried to kill me”

What Happened: In the Netflix special, Foxx says he had a “severe headache” on April 11, 2023, then was “out” and doesn’t remember anything for the next 20 days. He says it was his sister who took him to Piedmont Hospital, where a doctor told her Foxx had a “brain bleed that led to a stroke” and that “If I don’t get into his head, we’re going to lose him.”

“You can go into his head, but you won’t find anything,” Foxx jokes, quoting his sister’s response.

Foxx includes some hilarious jokes and asides as he recounts his trauma. While he is known for films like Ray, Security And Django UnchainedHis roots lie in stand-up and sketch comedy.

“I saw the tunnel. I didn’t see the light,” he says. Then he answers blankly: “I thought I saw the devil. Or was it Puffy?” A reference to Sean “Diddy” Combs. The internet was full of them Rumors that Foxx would blame Combs for his hospitalization. But Foxx gives the imprisoned music mogul a good laugh.

Throughout the special, Foxx is continually confused as he thinks about the impact his hospitalization has had on his family and friends.

Denial, gratitude, faith, music, impressions and an internet takedown

Foxx says he woke up on May 4 in a wheelchair and couldn’t walk. When a friend told him that he had suffered a stroke, Foxx bristled: “That’s an old man’s thing.”

He went to rehab in Chicago, where he says he had bouts of star-power arrogance. His therapist was having none of it. “Jamie Foxx doesn’t care about this punch,” she told him, “There are people who can’t get out of here.”

One of the special’s most poignant moments involves Foxx talking about his family and everything they did to protect and care for him. He says it was his then 14-year-old daughter Anelise who kept his vital signs low when she came to the hospital and played guitar for him. He calls her “my spiritual defibrillator.” She joins Foxx on stage for a duet. It’s quite a moment.

The internet is awash with speculation about what happened to Foxx while he was in the hospital, some of it quite absurd. Foxx is getting on the nerves of people who claimed he was “cloned.”

Foxx talks a lot about his faith and reflects that he believes the stroke was a sign that he wasn’t taking God and his blessings seriously enough. Sitting at the piano, he leads the audience in singing and says: “God is good. All the time.”

Wanda, Mike Tyson, Ray Charles and Django. The audience goes wild as Foxx brings back some of his iconic characters and impersonations. “It’s amazing how connected we all are,” he tells them. The comedian thanks Atlanta more than once. It’s the place where he first stood up, and it’s a place he now says kept him alive.