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.

Didn't he also recently hit a photographer or was that somebody else?

Not a Chris rock fan, not a jada fan and after that my opinion of will Smith has changed.

The joke was well below the belt and I think everyone would have thought it mean but there was no need for WS to hit him. He laughed at the joke to begin with and I think maybe if people hadn't laughed and will had shouted from the crowd CR would have looked more of a prat. WS lost a lots of sympathy resorting to violence

@Kolani

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.

Right so it's all Jada's fault? He has no self control?

@TabithaTittlemouse

WS speech about how ‘ love makes you do crazy things’ just screams abusive twat making excuses for his behaviour. ‘I hurt you because I love you’.

But he didn't hurt her.

A mutual display of toxic masculinity.

The Academy would do well never to invite Chris and Will again.

Gross. I suspect hes behaved much worse toward her in their marriage than a rude comment.

Typical Alpha twat behaviour. "How dare you insult MY woman. Let me make this all about me and my heroic behaviour"

Twat. I'd be so ashamed of him. Times have changed, women have a voice and I dont need a man to decide how to handle MY issue. How dare he think it's his place to weight in, even more so with violence. Thats not being an ally.

@BurntEnds I don't know how you and another post are getting that from the post. It's called sarcasm! Will is an idiot.

Will should never have been allowed to sit back down in the audience after that. Jada is perfectly capable of handling that comment by herself, she's not a little weak women in the corner, she doesn't need her big husband to go up and defend her. She eye rolled and no doubt would have ripped Chris a new one later on social media or on her red table talk show. Will found it hilarious until he realised she was pissed off. I'd be absolutely furious at him if I was her. The fact he is obviously finding it fairly funny now and enjoying the after parties is grim. Just shows how foul Hollywood really is. Don't get me started on the fucking party bag values.

It would have been so much more powerful for her to go up on stage and address it directly with him.

She would have owned her story, had the moral high ground and Chris would he grovelling for his career.

Just checked and he did actually hit/punch a reporter recently on the premiere of Men in Black 3, so he clearly has form for this type of violent behaviour. I guess being an A-list star means you can do anything you want, he's a lose canon.

[quote Kolani]@BurntEnds I don't know how you and another post are getting that from the post. It's called sarcasm! Will is an idiot.[/quote]
I struggle with sarcasm in written form. So apologies.

Chris Rock making a shitty joke about Java’s hair loss - not ok.

Will Smith smacking him round the face - also not ok.

And now his son proudly says "that's how we do it!"

And so the toxic masculinity continues...

Why on earth was he allowed to sit back down? He assaulted someone!! I feel empathy for him because he did realise it was a total mistake, and he just lost about a zillion goodwill points from the world. But too late, can't unsee that one.

@BurntEnds Apology accepted.

Jada is no shrinking violet, she's perfectly capable of speaking if she wanted to. I think she just eye-rolled inwardly and was going to leave it or might have said something to CR after the show.

"Sticks and stones my break my bones, but teasing never hurt me"
Accept most people know teasing (let's call it what it is verbal abuse) does hurt, it leaves mental scaring.
It wasn't a joke, it was designed to humiliate and cause distress.
Physical violence is never okay either.
I am not condoning what happened, but since it has happened maybe some good will come out of this and shine a light on how it's never okay for an innocent party to be the butt of someone's else's joke. If WS hadn't hit CR, this kind of mocking, humiliating diatribe would just continue, maybe this is the wake-up call needed to highlight, that neither verbal or physical abuse is ever acceptable.

@SpeckledlyHen

I just saw this and it summed it up perfectly for me:

"There's a lot of ways Will Smith could have handled that better, but it's taken me two hours to think of all the better options so I understand by he chose that one in about 5 seconds"

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I can understand why he reacted like that. Whilst it's not great I can understand it.

This.

And extreme situations do bring out extreme behaviour. This is not like some bloke down the pub insulting your spouse, where you might just be expected to say, ' You are a wanker mate' and leave.

This is someone who is your peer, getting all your peers to laugh, in front of a world audience of millions, at a condition that causes you partner distress, at an event - hyper focussed on physical perfection - which must exacerbate feelings of your partner around that condition.

I also think they’re both arseholes.

I don’t think it was scripted though - for one, Hollywood could do better than that. And for another, a much better reaction would have been Jada rolling her eyes and the audience being absolutely silent.

Agree with most people here I think. Chris was a bully to be insulting Jada in front of millions in that way. Will was very quick tempered and had clearly lost control when he got up to slap him. Obviously neither of them were in the right, and it actually pains me that Will lost control because it just invalidated his point. Smith will need to apologise for quite some time I imagine (rightly) and now Chris will just get away with the joke.

A lot of victim blaming and shaming on this thread.

@GahAndTheBear

Will could easily have gotten up on to the stage when he was supposed to and, rather than giving an acceptance speech, discussed how unacceptable it is to make jokes about medical conditions. He could have shone the spotlight on the problem and referenced the things that jada has said publicly about her conditions.

If he wanted to ‘stand up for her’, at least that would have been non-violent.

Yes this would have been a far more positive course of action I agree.

They are both wrong.

Chris Rock’s joke was in very poor taste and he should not have used it. He should apologise for the upset caused. Those who may be looking to employ him may chose not to do so if they disapprove of his “jokes”.

Will Smith cannot go around assaulting anyone who upsets or insults him/his wife/his family. He could have got up and left, he could have made a complaint at the time/during his speech or with the organisers after the event. He could have publicly criticised Chris Rock and asked for an apology- or his wife could have.

If I publicly slapped someone who insulted me or my DH, I could be charged with assault. My professional body would have something to say about that. I may well face the loss of my career. Being rich and famous does not, or should not, give you free rein to resort to violence even if the person has been rude and/or derogatory.

Jesus. Some of the comments on here defending Will Smith's actions

2 wrongs don’t make a right.
But if he was going to that much effort, he may aswell have punched him. Seriously, how rude was Chris Rock? How dare he.
Don’t disrespect a woman to a world audience. Fuck him. I mean…. I guess I’m more on Will’s side.

Smith has temper issues judging by the his punching oa reporter recently too. However, playing devil's advocate here, isn't that what stand up comedy is all about???? there was a thread on MN a while back where a stand up had said something very very insensitive and at least 90% of posters agreed that NOTHING is of (out of?) bounds, disabilities, race, gender whatever, when it comes to stand up comedy, and if people can't take it they shouldn't attend. I didn't agree at the time but was very outnumbered.