Will Smith Assaults Chris Rock at Oscars

[Drak]

At the Oscars tonight Chris Rock cracked a GI Jane hair joke about Jada Pinkett Smith. Will Smith laughed along but then went on stage and slapped Rock in the face. People thought it was staged at first but it wasn’t. Will Smith then yelled for Rock to keep his wife’s name out of Rock’s mouth (with mixed in profanity). The audience fell silent in shock.

Here’s an uncensored version from Australia.

https://twitter.com/davidmackau/status/ ... 5902687232

Will Smith was hopefully removed. WTF? That’s absolutely nuts.

[Libertas]

I was watching, and then when Will Smith won the award he started talking about love and I thought as much as I understand what he did, it wasn’t the way to handle it I don’t think and it certainly didn’t have anything to do with love.

He was not removed.

For a little background this is not the first time Chris Rock made a joke about Jada, you can Google it, at the Oscars he joked about Jada boycotting the Oscars was like him boycotting somebody’s panties.

[ZoWie]

Gol dang, I told you I wasn't going to watch the Oscars, and I didn't, and look what happened. I take credit for giving you one of the great moments in live TV. There's so little amusement these days, so I am glad I could serve you in this manner.

I will establish a GoFundMe where you can all pay me to boycott watching the Oscars again next year.

[ProfX]

Yeah, and it was totally spontaneous that Jerry Lawlor b*tch-slapped Andy Kaufman on TV, too.

Let's just say - I'm a wee bit skeptical this wasn't a set-up.

BTW, Coda from Apple+ won Best Picture, beating out Belfast, Drive My Car, and Power of the Dog. Yet again a win from a direct-to-streaming service.

[JoeMemphis]

Perhaps it says something about the relevance of Oscar’s. This is the headline and few of anyone is talking about the actual awards. I haven’t watched an award show in decades. It’s all staged. The slap may be the most realistic part of the entire evening.

[carmenjonze]

Oscars controversy shines a light on Jada Pinkett Smith's 'struggle' with alopecia - CNN

Jada Pinkett Smith found her struggle with hair loss at the center of an unexpected controversy at the Oscars on Sunday night, after her husband Will Smith appeared to strike comedian Chris Rock in response to a joke he made about her shaved head.

But while social media users were divided on the "King Richard" star's angry response, there was widespread support online for Pinkett Smith, who has previously opened up about her experiences with the condition alopecia.

"Jada is a CURRENT inspiration for SO many people who live with the same or similar subcategory of her condition," wrote one user. The writer Roxane Gay meanwhile said that although she didn't think the joke about Pinkett Smith's alopecia justified violence, she understood how it "could push someone over the edge."

Revealing her diagnosis in 2018, Pinkett Smith has spoken publicly about the condition, which has no known cure. In an episode of her chat show, Red Table Talk, she recalled the "terrifying" moment she first noticed she was losing "handfuls of hair" in the shower.

"It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking with fear," she said. "That's why I cut my hair and continued to cut it."

Chris Rock tried to make a Black woman with an autoimmune disability the butt of a joke on live national television. If you were watching the show, the cutaway to her and Will showed a very visceral reaction from her. So after Will seeing that Jada was hurt by the joke, Chris Rock ended up getting popped in the mouth.

Smith said during his Best Actor acceptance speech that he was "protecting." Personally, I wish the whole idea of chivalry would be left in the medieval period that it came from. But Rock earned what he got by hitting below the belt. Should Smith have assaulted him, no. The whole thing could have been avoided with a better joke that was not at the expense of someone with an autoimmune disability, especially since we're supposed to be celebrating the advancement and representation of Deaf culture and performers, with the Coda win.

[carmenjonze]

I haven’t watched an award show in decades.

Then your comments are irrelevant.

[ProfX]

LAPD says Chris Rock is not pressing charges. Make of that whatever you wish.

Generally, as his comedy goes, he's not one that generally does jokes at other peoples' expense that way (unlike certain other comedians).

That joke would have been awful in a small comedy club. It was really in poor taste in front of millions of viewers.

[Drak]

Comedians make bad tasteless jokes all the time and both Smith and Rock have been around the scene long enough. But if Rock knew Pinkett Smith had a condition he probably shouldn’t have gone there.

What’s odd is Smith was laughing along until he realized it upset Jada. Smith’s aggressive profanity riddled out burst was shocking, and didn’t seem rehearsed or set up, and the audio was cut in the American broadcast. Families with kids watch these shows. The Kaufman bit was on late night TV.

Regardless, even if this happened to be a set up bit, society really seems to be breaking down, the result of being infested with Trumpism over the last 6 years, that something like this would happen at a venue like the Oscars. And that the audience would give Smith applause after his speech considering his violent actions. Like it’s normalized.

Smith’s comments about protecting his wife for love are also brow raising, and reminds me of language used by abusers.

Just a weird, strange occurrence.

[carmenjonze]

Chris Rock should not have told the joke, and Will Smith should not have hit him. Both conditions are true.

[Drak]

Aaron Rupar @atrupar - verified
16m

Fox News/Business mentions so far this morning

Virginia Thomas: 0
Will Smith: 33

[ProfX]

the result of being infested with Trumpism over the last 6 years,

Dunno, I remember being somebody pointing out how often this cretin advocated violence against protesters during his campaign. Then he went on to use violence against protesters when in power.

I saw it coming.

When a bully uses the bully pulpit to advocate for violence and bullying ... it affects a culture, coarsens a society.

I really, honestly cannot fathom anybody who wants this man to again have any kind of real power, and that for me is far beyond ideological disagreement.

[JoeMemphis]

Dunno, I remember being somebody pointing out how often this cretin advocated violence against protesters during his campaign. Then he went on to use violence against protesters when in power.

I saw it coming.

When a bully uses the bully pulpit to advocate for violence and bullying ... it affects a culture, coarsens a society.

I really, honestly cannot fathom anybody who wants this man to again have any kind of real power, and that for me is far beyond ideological disagreement.

Society is “coarsened”. It has been moving that direction for a while. I don’t disagree that Trump did anything but make the problem worse. I don’t see it getting any better. Not sure what the answer is.

[ProfX]

We can debate other steps. One I would argue is all Americans, even those in the GOP, should reject and rebuke a man who advocates the use of public violence as somehow being acceptable. GOP leaders should openly state it would be unacceptable for him to be their nominee. I do not care whatever else he has done ethically, or legally.

[ZoWie]

I'm weird, but all I saw here was the normal functioning of "Hollywood." It's a very serious, very high-stakes, very speculative, big-bucks industry. It wouldn't be that different from making cars or selling real estate, except for the fact that it also depends on the secular deification of people who are truly gifted at entertaining or performing but otherwise not always exactly models of socially desirable personalities.

We who grew up around this kind of thing tend to find the malfunctioning of stars at awards shows to be amusing. Awards shows are grotesque. They used to be low-key industry nights out, where people were honored by their peers for excelling at their craft, but that's before I was born. In my time it's all been what replaced variety shows on TV. It's an excuse to get a bunch of stars together in one place.

We who understand the blood sweat toil and tears required to get someone's idea from the vague elevator pitch stage via idea, outline, treatment, first draft screenplay, shooting script, production planning, rehearsal, pre-production, principal photography, post-production, marketing, publicity, exploitation, distribution, exhibition, advertising, more publicity, etc etc actually do want to see who wins best sound effects editing etc. The public, though, is tuned in to see the stars, and the stars do what stars are given their high social status to do..... entertain the rest of us. Since these are, for the most part, not very intelligent people, they sometimes unintentionally drop the PR department version of class and do some dumb things live on-air, and those are to be treasured as real looks into the normal functioning of a pretty dysfunctional business.

I only saw the full, uncensored f word version online, but I have to admit that it's the best one of these things since Dustin Hoffman quoted Bette Midler using the F word on him after he won a Golden Globe, and the TV director cut straight to a shot of The Divine Miss M losing it right onto the floor. The Golden Globes are a phony award show. For most of their existence, they were mostly an excuse to watch a bunch of stars get drunk since there used to be a dinner first. That made them worth it, sort of. Unfortunately a few years back the sleaze caught up with the HFPA, as sleazy an outfit as you'll ever encounter in This Town, and now we're denied the delicious anticipation of maybe another f you moment on live TV during something billed as an uber classy event.

So we take what we can get. I understand exactly why there will never be criminal charges, and why such uncensored moments on live TV are so delicious. So be it.

[ZoWie]

BTW it's pouring rain in LA for the first time since early December. Will and Chris have apparently upset the weather gods.

[Glennfs]

I thread about the Oscars somehow windx up about trump and the gop
You people are obsessed

[gounion]

I thread about the Oscars somehow windx up about trump and the gop
You people are obsessed

Look in the mirror - yours are all about Hunter Biden.

[marindem01]

Chris Rock should not have told the joke, and Will Smith should not have hit him. Both conditions are true.

Don't watch the Oscars, haven't in almost 50 Years. From what I've read and seen and heard. Rock deserved it.

[Drak]

Don't watch the Oscars, haven't in almost 50 Years. From what I've read and seen and heard. Rock deserved it.

No he didn’t. Violence isn’t the answer. Behaving like that at that venue, isn’t the answer. Will Smith ruined his own night of celebration. Any dispute should have been handled off camera or after the show.

[Libertas]

Chris Rock should not have told the joke, and Will Smith should not have hit him. Both conditions are true.

I said the same thing, they were both wrong, what I don't understand is why would Chris make the joke if he knew she had a medical condition, stand up 101 you don't punch down unless you are Andrew Dice Clay (then you make your career doing it), so if it was merely a joke about a fashion choice of having no hair then I say it's a fair game joke, but if he knew about her medical condition then I don't get it, because at that point he is wrong to do it and at that point I dont see him doing it, but maybe.

The violence overshadows it all, Will's son said in a tweet that this is how they do it, meaning it cant be the first slap.

https://youtu.be/cicIQvHylj8

here is Jaden

https://twitter.com/jaden/status/150829 ... nQG8IY6CvQ


If the slap is OK and nobody here is saying it is, stand up is dead.

Kathy Griffin (great person)

https://twitter.com/kathygriffin/status ... nQG8IY6CvQ

[ProfX]

Two wrongs don't make a right.

BTW, I have been at a comedy show where the comic rather nastily attacked a guy and his spouse. That wasn't in front of a live TV audience of millions.

The guy and his wife walked out - that was the appropriate response (IMHO).

[carmenjonze]

AFAIC, this entire hemisphere is based on violence and punching down, and people punching back when punched.

Chris Rock could have avoided his situation by finding better material. He deserved what he got..which doesn’t mean Smith should have actually done it.

One thing’s for sure: Chris Rock and anyone else will think twice next time about joking about womens’s appearance, especially women with disabilities. Might not stop them from doing it but it will give pause.

What’s interesting to me is how Jada has gotten lost in all of this. Interesting, but not surprising. Next, she’ll be blamed for what happened to Chris Rock, watch for it.

[ProfX]

There is backstory to this which is important, too.

I like Chris. His humor can be awesome. He was my fave in Kevin Smith's Dogma as the Last Apostle. I know liberals love his jokes about taxing ammo. He doesn't USUALLY punch down like, say, Dice, or Dave Chapelle. BUT:

At the 2016 Oscars, Jada and Will boycotted the show over the #OscarsSoWhite protest. Chris was hosting that year. He joked: "her boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna's panties. I wasn't invited!"

The thing is, that was not just a diss on the two of them, him getting up there and saying that was kinda a diss on everybody upset and boycotting over the Oscars not recognizing enough black directors/performers/etc. and minimizing their concerns.

All that said ... if it wasn't staged, I have a feeling some small part of it was Will knowing lots of cameras were watching, and it was time for a Kanye moment. He had to know dropping an F bomb after would get bleeped, THEN make the news the next day. He's not new to the media circus. Like they often joke, "who cares what you write about me, as long as you spell the name right." But again, still, two wrongs don't make a right.

[Number6]

Okay, I know I'm going to catch hell for this but here goes. What I notice is after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, Will Smith swaggered off-stage. The message I got from that was "I'm Will Smith, mega-star, what are you going to do about that?"

I like Chris Rock in his comedies and action movies.
I like Will Smith in his comedies and action movies.

Chris Rock used extremely poor judgement in what he said and he should be called out for it. Chris Rock uses words to get a reaction and publicly criticizing him is the proper feedback.

Will Smith used extremely poor judgement in what he did and should have addressed Chris Rock's "joke" during his acceptance speech or afterward during interviews. IMO, he would have received a standing ovation and Chris Rock would have been made, rightly so, to look tiny.