Will Smith punches Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars.

[CheeseMuffin]

I think I speak for us all when I ask WTF just happened?

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/27/will-smith-punch-chris-rock-wife-joke-gi-jane-video-oscars

There are ways of standing up for someone without resorting to violence.

You could see his wife's reaction to the comments.

Walking out or going on stage and asking Chris Rock what he meant by those comments would have been better.

People who mock others sometimes need to be confronted by the people they mock and asked to explain their comments.

I feel for Jada. To be mocked is unpleasant and upsetting, but for her husband to then spring that macho shit (defending her honour, my ass - he felt bad for laughing and then overreacted. The assault was about his hurt ego, not her feelings.) is even worse. And is Will behaves like that in public, what's he like at home?

And there is no way it was staged. Two black men would never agree to perform that setup - it's potentially career ending for Will.

I can’t believe he was allowed to sit back down. Impressionable young people would have watched him assault a man and then . allowed to return to his seat. He was also then given an award shortly after! What does this say? What lesson does it teach?

Chris Rock was a nasty bully, he encouraged a big audience of people to laugh at Java’s fair loss, imagine how she would have felt. He had it coming imo. Nice work Will Smith.

I didn't realise had alopecia. I feel so sorry for her firstly humiliated by a crap joke to get a cheap laugh then humiliated by her oaf of a husband

You think if someone makes fun of you, it's OK to assault them?

Well, I've never assaulted anyone in my life, so it's not how I would deal with it and I agree that it was a fine example of toxic masculinity, but I think Chris Rock was a real jerk. Will and Jada have been the butt of many jokes over the past couple of years and I think he'd just had enough. So no, it wasn't okay, but if you insult someone or their wife or someone they care about, then maybe you'll get slapped for it and maybe some people will think it wasn't exactly unjustified.

Is it staged? Will laughed until he saw his wife's face?!

• Jada’s hair

Toxic masculinity. Watching Richard Madeley trying to justify it on ITV while the women on set are condemning male violence…

Chris rock did a documentary on female hair loss and his wife does wigs for people in this situation. It’s well known that jada has alopecia . Not excusing Will, but Chris rock is an arse

Neither of them covered themselves in glory at the awards. I expect after review today from the academy, the award will be revoked. Very ugly behaviour, he could have said his bit when he collected his award.

@zafferana

Will Smith went a bit apeshit, but actually I think he was justified. He and Jada have probably had enough of being the butt of people's jokes and if someone was making fun of me, just to get a laugh, I'd hope my DH would act too. I realise that slapping someone is assault, but the joke was in horrible taste and Chris Rock is a jerk. Making fun of a woman's hair falling out??? Oh yeah, very fucking hilarious. What an arsehole.

I agree the joke was in bad taste but you can’t just physically assault someone like that. He should’ve educated people after in his speech.

You can’t punch a comedian every time they make an insensitive joke of most would be battered to death.

You can’t have a society where it’s ok to hit someone because you’re offended. I’ve sat through jokes about things that have personally affected me and my family never once did I think about storming on stage and punching the comedian.

What did Chris say exactly? Can’t work it out

It feels to me that there is history here. The “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth” was said with more venom than you would expect from one poor taste joke. I doubt this is the first time CR has said or done something inappropriate and insulting towards Jada.

@PAFMO

Nice to see the disablism apologists out in force. Will Smith should have knocked him out. Hopefully it'll be Rock who gets cancelled and not WS. At least the latter can act and doesn't resort to 1970s style sexism and disablism to get his kicks.

Seriously? I can't get over the people justifying Will Smith's assault. He isn't four year, society can't resolve issues by assaulting people. Will Smith could have walked out, stood up and shouted out, called Rock out in his own acceptance speech, spoken about his disgust to the media afterwards etc.... The list goes on! He assaulted a man and he needs to pay for that. Shame on the people who have him a standing ovation afterwards. He's obviously a man on a short fuse who has some serious issues. He's also succeeded in taking the focus off Chris Rock who needed to face derision for his unbelievably offensive joke. Rock's career should be over. It might have been if Will Smith had dealt with the comment without resorting to assault.

Will should have remained quiet, then thanked his very beautiful wife in his own speech, making an official statement after the ceremony about Chris’s behaviour. Sadly will responded instinctively in anger.

One thing I found odd was that Will hit someone on live TV in defense of his wife, but then when it goes to break, he talks to Denzel Washington, talks to Bradley Cooper, then just as it's about to go live again goes and sits back down next to Jada but he doesn't even look at her. It's left to Denzel to check on her. So weird.

I didn’t understand the joke at all?
But the punch 🥊 looked real to me as did the yelling afterwards.

If a slap, a very hard one.

Violence is never a good look.
Hairtrigger tempers are scary.

I feel awful for jada tbh. It's a horrible joke.

@BloodyloveGeorge

Toxic masculinity. Watching Richard Madeley trying to justify it on ITV while the women on set are condemning male violence…

Yep this is it. There’s been loads of threads discussing male violence on here recently and the toxic male culture that allows it that’s imbedded in some of our institutions.

But now there’s women on here agreeing with Will Smiths actions. No, sorry, it doesn’t matter if it’s against another man or a woman, it’s all part of the same issue. Not acceptable.

You don’t get to cheer someone on for punching another person for anything. Ever. The fact that so many people posting here are doing that is so very depressing. Go over to the Relationships board and see all the ‘good’ reasons that posters have been given for the violence that they, their children and families have been on the end of.

We all just saw a frightening lack of control. No way on earth would Will Smith have done that if he’d put one iota of thought into it.

Sorry to sound ignorant, but I am on this - Jada wasn't bald. She had a shadow all over her head, it just looked shaved. Is that a thing with alopecia, that maybe it only grows a tiny amount? My only frame of reference is Gail Porter and she is definitely bald.

I switched on Good Morning Britain about 7am as I woke early, and they've been talking about hardly anything else. It doesn't deserve this much air time. Switching off !

Just watching the unedited clips, and the slap itself looks like a stage slap. Like really doesn't look real. But then Chris's reaction and Smith's screaming afterwards definitely seems real. And the reaction of everyone else.

The joke was shit. It was inappropriate. But that was a terrible way to react.

I don't think it's staged, his shouting afterwards is just too ugly and the way he holds himself when walking back is just revealing too much repressed fury or fear. He was keeping it in until he saw Jada's response too which indicates it was her response which triggered it for him rather than the comment itself. If it's not real, it's perfect acting, and I don't think many actors are that good.