I hope the consensus is that there is no “trend” here.
This is just indicative of a chronically successful, demibillionaire so immature/full of himself he thinks he has the right to hit people in front of millions of people and get away with it. (And he apparently does!)
Or if there is a trend, it’s that we imbue actors with some sort of projected wisdom that only few actually have.
i see you. good one.
Agree, but one of the richest and most powerful and successful people in entertainment “b!tch-slapping” a comedian on a worldwide live broadcast is also a supremely bad look. He announced to the world either that he and Jada stand above the norms the rest of us are expected to follow, or that it is open season for physical attacks on comedians whose jokes may piss us off. Violence has far more of a chilling effect on culture than so-called “cancel culture” ever did.
I would say that the main takeaway would be that this particular incident has nothing to do with broader trends of violence in society at large, regardless of the degree to which said trends are linked to political rhetoric calling for or at least excusing violence.
I would also say that neither Rock nor Smith come away from this looking good at all. There are a lot of people calling Chris Rock an asshole and a lot of people calling Will Smith an asshole and the two statements are not the least bit contradictory. Saying that Chris Rock made a low-blow joke does not in any way justify what Will Smith did (and nobody is trying to say so), and the fact that he got slapped does not retroactively make Chris Rock’s joke okay (and nobody is trying to say this either). As for who is the bigger asshole, well, this isn’t some kind of asshole contest.
If someone escalates to violence with me, their excuse/rationale about how I started it due to something non-violent I did previously holds no water with me because at that moment, that past is dead to me. The only thing that concerns me anymore is that assault (and the potential for repeats of same). Once that situation is resolved, I can consider the past.
This post is admittedly almost certainly not needed. It may not even be coherent as the repeated posts about how “he shouldn’t have said that” have been quite rage inducing. But I needed to vent.
I’m muting all relevant threads.
What i find egregious is that Smith talks a lot about being “woke” but defaults to violence and angrily screaming at Chris Rock pretty quickly. In his acceptance speech apology he also never mentions Chris Rock by name, just apologizes to the academy and the audience so he’s clearly not sorry about lashing out at Chris Rock himself.
I’m equally amazed someone is actually making the argument that the distinction does matter.
I think Rock comes off a lot better. Yes— a truly tasteless joke (they cant all be winners). But Rock takes the hit, and like a consummate professional, doesn’t miss a step. Meanwhile, Smith demonstrates a level of callowness equivalent to the senior high-school jock.
In light of this, looking forward to Ricky Gervais’ next Golden Globes gig.
I’ve been surprised at the response from so many that this slapdown on live TV is an understandable reaction to a bad joke. Somehow I had gotten the idea that patriarchal attitudes about “protectin’ mah woomans” were a bit dated and that women don’t expect men to fight battles for their honor anymore. It’s a bit too much macho posturing for me.
If Chris Rock had physically attacked Jada Smith then sure, slap him down because that’s unacceptable behavior. But a bad joke is not a physical assault. And then for Smith to offer the explanation that God somehow called him to defend his family…really?
You can’t keep doing microaggressions against people and not have a reaction that is like this. From all accounts, Will and Jada have both asked Chris Rock to stop, and so have many others for many different similar shitty comments, and he has not. Eventually, you can’t be surprised when the bully gets someone mad enough to pop them.
It’s really hard to take your pearl clutching over violence seriously, when you seem really eager to dismiss a whole invasion of a nation-state…
Which is bullshit…Full stop.
But mass shelling of Ukraine is just fine, eh…
Thanks! Corrected.
Come on Ted Cruz, punch Trump. It’s not too late.
Yah the joke was a real hack. That movie was from 1997 for fuck’s sake, and while it was considered “edgy” at the time because it portrayed a woman in a combat role, that is now normal. Half the audience is probably not old enough to have even heard of that movie.
So for Rock to go to dip into that hackneyed ancient well to make an ableist hair loss joke is really pathetic on so many levels.
That said, Smith is also displaying toxic masculinity and shot himself in the foot for it. He was on the podium later- he had the perfect platform to take down Rock verbally, which would not have been censored and would have made a much bigger impression. Instead he had to use the time to apologize for himself, mortifying his wife even further.
I know you’ve muted this thread, but it still needs to be said:
Rock was wrong for what he said, Smith was wrong for what he did, and many people here are wrong for using this incident as an excuse to signal how much “better” they are than everyone else.
I apologize to you for getting on your wrong side, clearly not articulating my position well.
I agree with all the points you’ve made.
I also see more violence everywhere around me, of whatever degree, in the past several years or so. And it frightens me, honestly.
I think the conversation about violence in general is pretty extreme here. Ultimately this is a long-standing escalating personal embitterment between people that has reached the level of a slap after years and years and years of nonviolent action between the two. I don’t really see how this is an example of violent cultural norms at all when it wasn’t the first move, and it was intended to be shocking and embarrassing and not to cause harm. The idea that this is some shocking use of physical harm is a ridiculous claim when there is clearly not actual physical harm caused or intended.
Is it an assault? Sure, whatever. It is and it’s not the right thing to do, it’s just being talked about in absurdist hyperbolic speech with regards to violence and what it means.
Also, the idea that Will Smith is the only showcase of toxic masculinity here is also absurd to be when we know that one of the hallmarks of toxic masculinity is hiding verbal abuse behind jokes targeting specific people’s disabilities, sexuality, etc. It’s not all just grunting and punching, a huge amount of it is insult humor and degrading and othering - to the point that men can’t talk about feelings, work through problems without escalating to violence, or maintain meaningful friendships as adults where they can talk about their emotional health.
Will Smith stars as the cowardly small man in this movie.
