The Healing Power of Humor: Jamie Foxx’s New Special, ‘What Had Happened Was…’

By Natalie McCarty

Jamie Foxx has always been a man of extraordinary talent—a charismatic actor, a soulful singer, a sharp comedian. But his new special reveals a side of him we’ve rarely seen so intimately: the man behind the stardom, grappling with the fragility of life, and triumphing over unimaginable odds. 

Image Courtesy of Netflix

From the moment he walks onto the stage in his new Netflix special, What Had Happened Was...,  there’s a palpable shift in the air. It was hard to imagine how Foxx’s near-death story could ever be made into any type of comedy, but somehow he did it. Addressing the clone rumors, adding some quippy jokes about the media’s theories that Diddy did it (Did-he?), Foxx stands strong in his humor and radiates light. 

The special is certainly a celebration of his survival, a triumph of resilience and artistry, and a deeply personal love letter to the gift of living. He displays a man who has faced tragedy and come out the other side profoundly changed.

Speaking candidly about his health struggles, Foxx delves into the unrelenting vulnerability of confronting one’s own mortality, using humor to soften the weight of his revelations while never diminishing their gravity. But even through the smart jokes, his pauses and fighting through his tears is what grabs your attention. 

“When you dream what you want to be in life, you don’t dream tragedy,” Foxx says. And it couldn’t be more true. Life’s hardest chapters often arrive unbidden, forcing us to reconcile the gap between our aspirations and our unexpected realities. “Strokes don’t happen to Jamie Foxx… I’m Jamie motherfuckin’ Foxx.” The truth is, not even J is immune to tragedy. No one envisions the detours, the pain, or the unexpected obstacles that life can throw in our paths. And yet, it’s in facing those moments that we discover our truest strength.

For Foxx, he realized humor is his truest strength—even his lifeline. “If I can stay funny, I can stay alive” grounds the special, as he highlights the role comedy has played in his recovery. Bringing light to an unimaginably dark situation, Foxx recounts heartbreaking moments from his journey with humor, impersonating and embodying everyone from Denzel Washington to Dave Chappelle. These performances are not only uproariously funny but also deeply poignant, a reminder of Foxx’s extraordinary talent and a display of his ability to find levity even in life’s heaviest moments. 

There’s an undeniable courage in his performance, as he refuses to sanitize his experience or wrap it neatly in a narrative of triumph. Instead, Foxx lets the complexity of his journey speak for itself, balancing the pain of his ordeal with the joy of simply being alive to share it. 

Image Courtesy of @strongblacklead

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the special is a quiet interlude when Foxx is joined on stage by his daughter, Anelise, who plays the guitar while he sings. It’s a tender, unspoken statement about the grounding power of family and the ways love can anchor us through life’s most turbulent storms. In what was truly a miracle, he shares the story that Anelise playing her guitar in the hospital was actually the only thing that could stabilize his vitals enough to keep him alive. Watching them together, it’s impossible not to feel the depth of their bond. And the gratitude Foxx carries for the people who carried him when he couldn’t carry himself. 

Foxx’s recovery, as he shares, was not just a physical journey but an emotional reckoning—one that forced him to “kill the old Jamie so the new one could walk out of here.” Framing tragedy in a light of transformation, of an experience that reshaped his outlook and deepened his appreciation for the present moment, was powerful. Through this lens, What Had Happened Was... becomes a meditation on the human condition, on how we navigate loss, healing, and the ever-shifting balance between despair and hope. 

Jamie Foxx’s story reminds us that when tragedy comes, you can still dream of triumph. And with that, Jamie Foxx has given us more than a performance—he’s given us a reason to keep fighting, laughing, and, most importantly, dreaming.

As Lenny Kravitz once said, “It ain’t over ‘til its over.”

Image Courtesy of @iamjamiefoxx