Seems to be, but of course, there will be talk until the heat death of the entire fucking universe that it was all a scam to get people to watch the oscars again… because people who act must always be on and never act out of emotion, like they are some sort of automatons.
ETA: Chris Rock has declined to file charges…
Word.
I don’t EVER watch awards shows anymore, and I’m sure as hell not about to resume watching now.
I just wonder what it was that Rock joked about that incited Smith?
Honestly, I think a lot of people just either don’t watch it anymore, or just watch clips after…
He made fun of Jada Pinkette-Smith, who has hair loss due to alopecia, which she apparently has talked about online. He also joked about her before during the whole Oscar-so-white stuff by saying she never gets invited to the Oscars anyway… He WAS being a dick, if you ask me.
When I realized just how much money and resources get wasted on those events, I quit fucking with them completely; that was at least 20 years ago.
I read that, as well as her recent admission about her condition.
Sadly, that’s what a lot of recent comedy sets boil down to; someone being a dick, just because they can.
See one Dave Chappelle; that muthafucka ain’t funny anymore… he just seems bitter and mean.
Agreed. He could take that bitterness and punch up at the actual people who are oppressing so many, but he’s taken it and decided to punch down. Sad.
And if Rock is on fucking Dave Chappelle’s side, then maybe he needed that slap to knock some sense back into him.
He does. Maybe this will help. I don’t know. I do find it upsetting that people who can make such pointed commentary about race in America can turn out to be so great at punching down at others.
Being a decent person is HARD WORK.
Staying that way is even harder, especially if one is rich and successful.
It saddens me that both men seem to be failing in that regard…
The twist is that Chris Rock might have taken some bad press about his joke but now Will made him the victim.
I don’t think that this was a planned stunt or anything, but I bet that both Smith and Rock will play this off as “No, of course we are the bestest of friends, don’t be silly.”
“Jada, I love you, ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it.”
The joke fell pretty flat even before Smith confronted Rock about it.
Do we need to quibble about whether Will Smith slapping a man was the correct action or not? This is assault. If Wanda Sykes had made the joke and Smith responded by walking on stage during her act and slapping the ever-loving shit out of her, we would not be debating whether it was the right move or not, let alone making comments hinting it was justified. We would be talking about Will Smith like he was an unhinged maniac and would be enraged that he went on to receive an Oscar and make an acceptance speech.
Being physically assaulted, even if it doesn’t result in serious injury, is (obviously) painful, psychologically traumatizing and humiliating for the victim, even when it doesn’t happen in front of millions of people. Maybe what Chris Rock said wasn’t very nice (which was something along the lines of “see you in GI Jane 2” – which I actually didn’t take as Rock being disrespectful at all) but I’m a little surprised to see folks actually arguing that someone “deserves” to be attacked in public during a performance because someone disliked what was being said.
I think that you have misconstrued the nature of the debate. Nobody is quibbling over whether it was correct action. The post to which you are responding is part of a debate on whether increased violence is the result of rhetoric that has normalized violence, and that debate has more or less concluded.
I found a full video clip.
Not funny as a joke, and just not fuckin’ cool.
And just whom are you accusing of doing that?
but
You have something you want to say to me?
Please: make it plain.
Because I never said nor even implied either statement.
I mean everybody sucks here.
Rock made a mean spirited joke that he should have known would touch a nerve. Rock and Smith actually have a feud that goes back several years and Rock had been making lots of jokes about Pinkett-Smith recently.
I definitely wasn’t expecting Will Smith to literally get up and smack Chris Rock - and Rock to his credit handled it like a total professional but the whole thing was shocking - and not in a good way. Nobody came out of this looking good and it overshadowed pretty much everything else that happened. Nobody will talk about how the first deaf person man to win an Oscar, or the first streaming service win for best picture - it will be hey remember how Will Smith hit Chris Rock on live TV?
