The Clap Back

3.28.22

Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith

There is one thing, and one thing only that the Internet is talking about this morning, and that is, Will Smith smacking Chris Rock at the Oscars last night. What is typically a classy and quiet night celebrating film and all those involved, turned out to be a bit of a brawl that everyone is talking about. What the people want to know: was it staged? If not, is Will in trouble?

Chris Rock joined the 94th Academy Awards to announce the winner for Best Documentary Feature. The announcers always get to say a few words, and as a comedian that he is, make a few jokes. As Rock was making his way through a few celebrities in the audience, he made a joke to Jada Pinkett Smith which went:

“Jada, I love you, G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see it.”

G.I. Jane is an old film, where Demi Moore shaves her head mid-film. Jada was rocking a new hair due with a completely shaven head at the show this night. Prior to Will getting up on stage and smacking Chris Rock, the cameras zoom on Jada where you can clearly see her roll her eyes and stop cheering in pure disappointment and discomfort.

Jada has been publicly dealing with alopecia, which is a condition that, unfortunately, causing hair loss. It is more than likely that this joke would offend Jada, as she did not shave her head because she wanted to, but she is actually dealing with something in real life, which, is contrary to the G.I Jane story.

Upon the discomforted look on Jada’s face, Will Smith walked right on stage up to Chris Rock and five-starred him right in the face. As he went to sit down he yelled at Chris Rock to “keep his wife’s name out of his f**** mouth,” twice.

Chris Rock was short in his responses to the situation, “uh-oh” and “wow,” but ultimately kept the show moving. There have been reports saying that the Los Angeles Police Department has been notified about the situation, but that Chris Rock declined to file any form of report. Chris Rock certainly was able to show his professionalism, and demonstrated how to take a breath and react calming during such crazy situations. In the end, I believe he understands (to an extent) where Will was coming from, and did not find it necessary to get authorities involved.

“LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program. The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report. If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report.”

To make this night more interesting, Will Smith won an Oscar for "Best Actor” in his film, King Richard. Upon accepting his award, Will was tears, attempting to apologize for his actions that happened just moments earlier, while also embracing the success of the film he was granted the highest honor for.

The internet has completely blown up about the situation. Dozens of people saying there is no excuse for these actions. Dozens saying, you better protect your wife when she is being hurt in such situations. Plenty more saying simply that Chris Rock “has a chin,” and then the contrary opinion - was that scripted?

Some have responded to the situation saying “I don’t think that you can just hop on stage, punch the host, then sit back down at the Oscars.” To me, it does seem a bit odd that no one stopped him from running on stage. No one escorted him out after. Then, they just let him stay and accept his award again with no real repercussions. Not to mention, people are comparing him sticking up for Jada to the storyline of the film he won the award for.

The way people are acting, I think it’s too sensitive of a topic to call it scripted or not. Hopefully Jada is feeling better about the situation ... Chris Rock too, that was a mean hit.