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.

The vast majority of ‘surprise’ moments at The Oscars are absolutely scripted and rehearsed, but I would be astounded if this was. The impact this is likely to have on Will Smith’s reputation is huge, and I doubt anyone would have agreed to it, especially given he also won one of the biggest awards of the night. Him, or Jada, storming the stage and calling Rock out sure, but perpetuating the very worst male violence stereotypes, no way.
Violence isn’t the answer, and you don’t defend women with it.

The Oscars are wank.

I'm going against the majority with this. I suffered with Alopecia when I was in my early 30's (fortunately in my case my hair did eventually grow back) and I'd have been devastated if I was on the receiving end of that 'joke' and delivered so publicly. She probably spent a lot of money on her dress and her jewellery and arrived feeling and looking as fabulous as everyone else (appearance is everything in LA) and to the. be pulled up on something so personal is just nasty. I think that sums up Hollywood and its attitude generally to women tbh, women are easy pickings. If Rock had been any closer to her she probably would have slapped him herself, she wasn't so WS did it for her.

I don't condone violence on the whole but I'd make an exception in this case.

WS should've been removed for doing that. How is getting up and hitting someone in full view of a room of people (and millions watching) acceptable? Instead he got to swan about the after parties.

The 'joke' was a low blow however with their constant chronic over sharing about their marriage it shouldn't have come as a complete surprise that they would be up for some pathetic roasting.

Her man

Fucking hell - really?? Where do you live, Hillbillyville 1972?

If will Smith was that bothered by joke he wouldn’t have accepted the Oscar. All jokes are prerehersed and the organisers know about them before hand and chose to keep this joke in.

So will Smith cared encounter to slap someone but not enough to reject his award or to walk out.

He shouldn’t have been allowed to remain in the ceremony and shouldn’t have been given air time to give a speech.

I’m appalled at him and the event organisers who allowed it to happen without any repercussion.

What if she wanted her man to handle the situation? her man? He's not hired security or a pet dog.

She didn’t need to do anything in the moment. She could sit there and the bring it up in every interview following the show. She could have played a PR blinder where he came out looking awful It might have worked like that. Or she might just have been ignored. Or have it come across that she is being a big crazy and making a big deal of nothing, ' just let it go man - stop ruining what was a good night for everyone else'.

And we just disagree what it means to be in a couple then. Its awful when someone is going at you and you are left to deal with it alone. There was a thread about bullying recently and the adults who were attacked by bullies said the worse thing about it was not the attack, but the fact that there friends did nothing. but just walked off. A woman who was surrounded and insulted at an event recently said the worse thing was that no-one stepped in or did anything. Its absolutely awful to know that when the shit hits the fan, you are left to deal with it alone.

My value is that you don't leave people to deal with things alone, you do stand up for them. And absolutely you do that for the person you go through life with.

@StormzyinaTCup

I'm going against the majority with this. I suffered with Alopecia when I was in my early 30's (fortunately in my case my hair did eventually grow back) and I'd have been devastated if I was on the receiving end of that 'joke' and delivered so publicly. She probably spent a lot of money on her dress and her jewellery and arrived feeling and looking as fabulous as everyone else (appearance is everything in LA) and to the. be pulled up on something so personal is just nasty. I think that sums up Hollywood and its attitude generally to women tbh, women are easy pickings. If Rock had been any closer to her she probably would have slapped him herself, she wasn't so WS did it for her.

I don't condone violence on the whole but I'd make an exception in this case.

Don’t you think them walking out and/or will Smith rejecting the Oscar would have been a more powerful response.

I actually felt he ended placing more embarrassment on his wife and peoples attention is now not on the offensive joke, but on will smiths slap and subsequent bizarre speech.

The 'joke' was a low blow however with their constant chronic over sharing about their marriage it shouldn't have come as a complete surprise that they would be up for some pathetic roasting. so because of their sharing details of a marriage its ok to "roast" someone's appearance?

@GahAndTheBear

I know its not 1822, but I've still seen plenty of threads on here from women angry that their husband didn't defend them. Will took things way too far, but the expectation and pressure for the man to do something when his wife has been insulted is still very much current.

@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.

Violence is never the answer however Jada would have been more than capable of punching Chris herself if that’s what she felt the joke warranted. This kind of toxic “protection” of women is insulting. Especially to strong women like Jada.

Good on him

Don’t you think them walking out and/or will Smith rejecting the Oscar would have been a more powerful response walking out would have resulted in "can't take a joke" type comments but rejecting the Oscar would have been a smart move. It might get taken off him now anyway?

Haha that’s funny

Looks at wife

Holup - no, not funny

looks staged to me and then the camera focuses on Will Smith while hes swearing. They could have cut away but this makes for good ratings and the Oscars have done terribly over the last few years.
No doubt there will be a Redtable talk or whatever its called were Chris Rock will be invited to sit down with Will and Jada OR Will Smith will have therapy online for us all to see and their marriage issues will unravel further.

I just don't understand why they don't separate publically and move onto other people as they don't seem happy. with all that money and resources they could have anything. Sad.

I'm just sad WS didn't wait until his acceptance speech to humiliate CR on his cruel and unnecessary 'joke'.

It could have been so dignified and powerful and made CR look like the odious bully he his.

That’s the thing, Chris Rock is now seen as the victim instead of the teller of an incredibly misogynistic, insensitive joke. Will Smith did no one any favours here, least of all his wife.

If I was Jada I'd have hit CR myself. She remained dignified and looked stunning anyway.
It was a deserved slap for telling such a nasty joke imo. Sticks and stones...blah but we all know that abuse is not just physical.

The "joke" about Jada was disgusting. Shame on him for taking the piss out of someone's hair loss.

But the slap was completely staged. They're actors.

All it has done is make Jada stand out even more. They're both muppets.

Will Smith behaved like a thug.

Imagine if Whoopi Goldberg had made a joke about Kanye's height when he was married to Kim Kardashian and Kim got up and lamped Whoopi? There would have been an intervention. There were so many socially constructed things at play last night, people didn't take action against thuggery and a man for a reason.

Chris Rock has a learning disorder that has similarities with autism, in that it involves not always understanding social cues. It's a recent diagnosis, so I presume he hasn't yet had very long to work through what this means for him/his comedy. The Academy allowed this joke to go through, I presume? That's on them, IMO.

Will has made himself look like a dickhead. Embarrassed his wife, ruined his win, and overshadowed the wins of everyone else. What a twat.

@StormzyinaTCup

I'm going against the majority with this. I suffered with Alopecia when I was in my early 30's (fortunately in my case my hair did eventually grow back) and I'd have been devastated if I was on the receiving end of that 'joke' and delivered so publicly. She probably spent a lot of money on her dress and her jewellery and arrived feeling and looking as fabulous as everyone else (appearance is everything in LA) and to the. be pulled up on something so personal is just nasty. I think that sums up Hollywood and its attitude generally to women tbh, women are easy pickings. If Rock had been any closer to her she probably would have slapped him herself, she wasn't so WS did it for her.

I don't condone violence on the whole but I'd make an exception in this case.

Totally with you on this! When we were kids you said something that nasty to someone's face you knew you risked a punch in the gob. We're all human at the end of the day and nobody forced him to be a complete asshole in the first place. He thought he had the power of the bully pulpit and he was safe.

These days people destroy people on social media all the time and everyone's expected to take it (then we all go on about a mental health epidemic). Nice to see someone say 'enough' as far as I'm concerned. Might make someone think twice about the damage their throwaway insult-for-laughs comment might have next time.

@notinherethen

It would have been a much more powerful statement if WS & JP had got up and walked out

Totally disagree. What would have happened is that jokes would have been made about them by CR after they left, and they would have been portrayed as precious, self-important and unable to take a joke.

I agree with this

And also why I think it wasn’t staged. WS shouts more aggressively the second time as there’s still people reacting as if it was staged

Then CR does get the message and is shocked

Don’t you think them walking out and/or will Smith rejecting the Oscar would have been a more powerful response

C'mon, how many times have politician's / actors flounced out of interviews and literally no-one thinks ' that was a really powerful message'. Absolutely everyone thinks, 'flouncing, puffed up wanker'