Will Smith/Chris Rock Oscars - where do you stand?

[Jaggerdagger]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-60898250

I'm a bit on the fence at the moment but shocked from watching this - wondered what others think?

YABU Will Smith had every right to wallop Chris. His wife was clearly deeply insulted. He deserved it.
YANBU Chris was just reading from a script and didn't deserve such a public assault.

@Sockpile

Calling Chris out for offending his wife is fine, resorting to physical violence is not.

This.

My first thought.. it was fake.

I thought so til he started shouting.

Second thought, do they not have security at such an event?

Yes, but not to stop the a list actors getting on to the stage.

I’ve read lots of comments on this and I really want to be the person who take a grown up, non-violent, feminist stance on this…but my true reaction was that I wanted to applaud Will Smith / found it funny / think it livened up yet another boring, gush-fest awards ceremony.

That’s my honest answer.

Come on, it’s so staged. Did most people even know the Oscars were happening last night. Well, you sure do now. It’s not even that clever or imaginative. They’re both showmen doing what show people do best. Creating drama for publicity.

He was laughing along with everyone else until he saw Jada's face. So, misogynistic arse to his own wife.
Then he either saw her and realising she was upset, got protective and flipped into my possession/male violence mode, (so misogynistic arse)
Or felt he looked bad in public by laughing (true), so overreacted for the cameras, nothing to do with Jada really. So, misogynistic arse.

We all know Chris Rock is a misogynistic arse.
However, I agree with this:
“The way he reacted to being hit, he obviously is not a violent man. It clearly shocked him but he made no move to retaliate or escalate the situation. He attempted to put the audience at ease and placate the violent angry man that had just attacked him, to calm the situation. THAT is how a good man reacts.”

And I agree that the roasting culture in the US opens itself to this sort of thing.
We remind unhappy women on MN that banter, negging and low level bullying disguised as jokes are abusive. What is different about roasting?

Looked staged to me.

Talking about Ricky Gervais .. I went to see Stewart Lee the other week, and he does a whole bit about Carr, Gervais, various American comics.. and their “punching down” humour.

“Rape jokes” “Mong” etc .. it’s not about being anti-woke .. it’s just vile

I don't know. I have alopecia and while I wouldn't call it a disability it can be incredibly difficult to deal with emotionally. I've had it for a while and can joke about it now with people who are very close to me, but somebody up on stage taking the piss out of me with cameras rolling would probably be devastating.

Violence is wrong, but just as people are free to make jokes in poor taste, others are free to respond, so I can't see anything wrong in the shouting/swearing. Much worse if everyone's just laughing and there's no indication that anyone thinks there was anything wrong with saying it.

I’m surprised the script writers didn’t have Jada delivering the slap. But then I guess it would look even more fake that it looked already.

I'm angry that all of this has taken away from the wonderful historic wins for CODA and the deaf community....

A bit of spontaneous acting to spice up an otherwise boring self indulging event

It attempted to explain the ‘politics’ of black women and their hair. It was poorly researched and largely denigrated black women and politically their struggles associated with hair.

I have seen this documentary and I believe he made it for his daughter after she said she didn't have "good hair". How were black women denigrated in it? Genuine question. I don't have multiple black friends but I used to work with many blank women and all them said it was great and most agreed it was a programme they'd have ever imagined would be made.

Will Smith is a fucking dick, always has been so it doesn't surprise me at all. Saying that. I don't like Chris Rock either. There's probably more to this, Jada and Will have a famously open relationship. Wouldn't surprise me if she hadn't been there...

[quote LaraDeSalle]Anyone would even half a brain knows that it was staged.

This is what happened after that stage slap during the commercial break-

[/quote] That doesn't show it was staged at all. Quite the opposite in fact. It shows WS being comforted and wiping tears from his eyes.

So Will Smith sits by like a wimp when his 'wife' has an affair yet decided to hit someone who made a joke. He is clearly manipulated by her. He is a mess and so is she.

I think it was all disgraceful. The joke and Will's violence, his refusal to control his temper, his apparent attitude than Jada is a possession of his so he needs to be violent on her behalf. She was the only one who behaved with any dignity (and she looked absolutely beautiful as well).

He's one of only a handful of black men to win an Oscar and like it or not, he's a role model. And the behaviour he modelled was really sad. And no this shouldn't be the case, but it is

@PutinIsAWarCriminal

I hate this type of bullying banter. Good for Will, I say. Violence is crap, but so is joking to a woman's face in front of the whole world about a devastating medical condition that affects her appearance.

I totally agree - Chris Rock's remark was bullying on such on huge scale - in front of millions of viewers.

I almost think it was intended to goad some reaction out of Will Smith to make him look bad. I also think CR was ad-libbing and it wasn't in the script - can you imagine that getting passed.

He could have called him out for it from his seat or got up and left, the moment he decided to react physically Will Smith cancelled himself in my eyes. Just because you are at a glitzy bash full of rich people it doesn't make it OK to physically assault someone. Why wasn't Will smith thrown out? Imagine doing that in a pub or any other place for that matter, work, a school, you'd be arrested, lose your job, or be expelled. Why has nothing been done here? Why was he still there and allowed to collect an award? I do hope they remove his Oscar.

I do wonder what he would have done if it was a female host? Like Rebel Wilson a few weeks ago making jokes at other people's expense. Would he have gone up and chinned a woman too? It doesn't reflect well on Will Smith and you wonder with that level of aggression what goes on behind closed doors?

Both are in the wrong here. I think in this day and age, making a mockery of people in these shows is not in and something should be done about it

What Will did both in slapping Chris and then cursing about it is wrong too. I think he could have done much more harm to chris by highlighting the cruelty of the joke than to commit assault.

Comedy, by its very nature, is usually offensive or at the expense of someone

Rubbish. This is how Merriam-Webster defines Comedy.
Tim Vine is hilarious, he doesn't offend people on purpose. (other comedians are available). You don't have to denigrate someone for your routine to be classed as a comedy, or to be funny. In general you shouldn't punch down, only up. Roasting at the Oscars used to be only for the nominees, which i find shit personally, but if they know about it in advance they can decide not to go, i guess. Making fun of a woman who has publicly said they are badly affected by their alopecia? Is Chris Rock likely to know that (hint: yes, he is in the same business).

comedy noun

com·e·dy | \ ˈkä-mə-dē

plural comedies
Definition of comedy
1a: a medieval narrative that ends happily
Dante's Divine Comedy
b: a literary work written in a comic style or treating a comic theme
the ancient Roman comedies of Plautus
2a: a drama of light and amusing character and typically with a happy ending
a comedy about parenthood
b: the genre of dramatic literature dealing with the comic or with the serious in a light or satirical manner
— compare TRAGEDY
3: a ludicrous or farcical event or series of events
a comedy of errors
4a: the comic element
the comedy of many life situations
b: humorous entertainment
nightclub comedy

I have no idea if it was, but to me it looked fake, like it was set up. I found it odd that a man supposedly enraged, merely slapped him, you’d have expected him to punch his lights out, so Smith was very much ‘controlling’ his anger and in slow motion it looked contrived.
If it had been a black actor hitting a white actor or vice versa, I imagine he’d have been arrested. It was just all very ODD. U

My honest take on this is, Will at first laughed because he found the joke funny, then he glanced at his wife and saw her scowl and thought, "SHIT! there's gonna be trouble I better do something!", so he marched up and socked one to Chris. Jada is now suitably appeased.

The moment Will Smith hit Chris Rock was shocking.
The joke was not a joke, it was a cheap shot at a woman who is suffering from hair loss. Women see their hair as an extension of their femininity. Ok , not all of them , but I think you will find most do, their hair loss is devastating. For someone to make a joke, about that on an event like the Oscar’s , that receives world coverage is totally unacceptable ,
However no matter how offended you may be by someone’s words or actions, you have no right to physically assault them in any way whatsoever. Looking at Will Smiths actions when he returned to his seat said it all. Having been in an abusive relationship I absolutely recognise the rage in his eyes, his body language and his verbal abuse This outburst will be nothing new to Jada , I’d bet my life on it.