to think Will Smith should be stripped of his Oscar?

[BloodyloveGeorge]

The Academy is supposed to have a code of conduct ( post Weinstein) so can take his Oscar away.
Given that this was a blatant assault, and a clear case of toxic masculinity at it's worst, he should lose his Oscar. He's not a role model, his behaviour isn't something that should be celebrated. There should be consequences for this example of violence.
Even a 6 year old knows you can't punch someone because they say something you don't like.

I don't think it's a a clear cut situation.
Chris Rock made an unacceptable joke relating to someone's medical condition.
Will Smith responded in an unacceptable manner.
I think removing the award would be an over-reaction to Will's over-reaction.
Equally I don't think it should go completely unnoticed but equally neither should Chris Rock's 'joke'.

@5zeds
Yes. Agree such bantz was far from benign and was clearly verbal abuse. Chris Rock should never have been allowed to say that GI Jane “joke” about Jada Pinkett. It was pure misogyny. But of course, let’s condemn the man who defended her but happened to go over the top in the heat of the moment and not focus on the rampant misogyny he was defending her against. It’s almost like people think what Chris Rock said was perfectly ok or even funny on some level. It was public abuse of a woman for her medical condition and her sexuality.

Chris Rock isn't filing a police report so yeah, he's allowing it too.

This is a key point. I don’t think either man covered himself in glory, but it was Chris Rock who go hit and if he doesn’t want to take it further, why should the Academy?

Personally, I think shouting ‘She’s got alopecia, you fucking moron’ would have been a damn sight more effective.

Sad to see so many supporting typical male violence.
I wouldn’t say it was very typical. A single slap isn’t the norm.

I'm struggling with this one, but I think yabu.

It was a terrible thing to do, but he isn't being charged with anything, he fortunately didn't do any serious damage to CR and he apologised profusely shortly after he did it.

As others have said, there are a few people who have done significantly worse, who are actual criminals, who are either in prison or would be if they weren't hiding out in another country, who have retained their Oscars. It would be a strange choice to strip Will Smith of his over something he isn't even facing criminal charges over, while two convicted sex offenders keep theirs

I’m with Teaandtoast. Good for him for sticking up for his wife. How dare Chris Rock verbally abuse her alopecia.

No, because there's no way they're going to go back through previous winners and strip them, so it would be purely performative because they didn't manage it well last night- they should have kicked him out. The real crime is that he won it for a film that minimises 2 women's achievements.

Oh shut up.

I think the Oscars need to put an end to the ‘anything can be joked about’ culture, in fact it needs to end everywhere. This ‘joke’ wasn't appropriate. Why do we all think that any words are fine but hitting isn’t? Some words are terrible too and this was an example of that. It’s completely weird that they’re all meant to sit there, have cruel jokes directed at them and not react. I find it bizarre.

And no, he shouldn’t lose the Oscar.

@BiBabbles

The only message it would send is that the Academy punish black men's violence while celebrating white men's, even if it was meant to be the start of the Academy actually giving a fuck about ethics which it doesn't.

There is a long list of violent white actors who still retain their awards. If they chose to retract those and Will Smith's is part of the academy's reform against actors who've been violent, sure, but you can't start that with Will Smith without it being very dodgy and with how things are in the US right, it would fast become a political issue that the US does not need.

Agree with this. Go and strip the Oscars off abusive people who already have them.

Yes Will Smith's actions were wrong, but were in unplanned retaliation to a horrible joke.

V different to repeated and planned sexual assault including of minors.

Yabu.

1. The incident had nothing to do with his award, which was for acting. Should criminals be stripped of their GCSE results?! Sick of this woke ‘cancel everything, block everyone, boo hoo I’m offended’ nonsense.

1. It was an open-handed slap, not a punch.

1. The ‘victim’ was a massive guy who was deliberately insulting Will’s wife, which has happened before on other shows, and I don’t think it’s ok for the world to expect anyone to clap and smile while their partner is mocked for being ill.

@teaandtoastwithmarmite

He defended his wife against an idiot saying twatty things about her. I applaud him. I don't condone violence but Rock was verbally abusing his wife.

You're literally condoning violence

Seems like the Academy are now discussing stripping him of the award.

What he did was wrong, but I hate these people standing at these award ceremonies spouting off un-funny personal remarks about people under the guise of entertainment.

No, the two aren't linked.

Don't humiliate a man's wife in front of millions of people over a very sensitive medical condition and perhaps you won't get slapped.

The only message it would send is that the Academy punish black men's violence while celebrating white men's

This. Unless they're going to take back oscars from Harvey Weinstein, Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski, Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn, Casey Affleck et al then removing Will Smith's oscar and banning him from future ceremonies as pp are suggesting would be discriminatory. If they started excluding all the white men who've commited violent offences then there'd be no one left in the audience for Chris Rock to make vile, lazy and tone-death jokes about.

My take is that Chris Rock's joke was appalling, Will Smith's reaction to it was appalling and neither of them deserve to benefit from increased publicity that the media circus around this event is sure to generate.

That should be tone-deaf obviously, stupid autocorrect.

‘ 2. It was an open-handed slap, not a punch. ’

Oh, well then that’s okay Isn’t it. Let me just explain to my teen son that it’s okay to deck someone for saying something mean so long as it’s an assault with an open hand rather than a closed fist.
Seems I’ve been wasting my time telling him that violence is never excused.

People saying its not linked are missing the point that the oscars who awarded it to him have a code of conduct that applies to people who have won an award from them- of course they can take it if they want. Most actors who win use it on promotional material for upcoming films, if they feel it would damage their reputation to be associated makes sense. That said they won't because most of Hollywood is vile.

Toxic masculinity? He laughed at the joke, Jada's face fell. The camera panned away. What if in that moment she made it plainly clear that there would be trouble if Will did nothing? It doesn't make the violence right, there are many other things he could have done but nobody can judge his motive unless they were there and they know exactly what happened.

‘ The only message it would send is that the Academy punish black men's violence while celebrating white men's’

Sorry, is that the OJ defence? In the past violent white men have escaped censure so now we need to give this man a free pass???
Or should the message be, no violence by ANyONE is acceptable?

@RG2017

Toxic masculinity? He laughed at the joke, Jada's face fell. The camera panned away. What if in that moment she made it plainly clear that there would be trouble if Will did nothing? It doesn't make the violence right, there are many other things he could have done but nobody can judge his motive unless they were there and they know exactly what happened.

He might have initially laughed in a shocked how dare you way too. I’ve seen people laugh or even fake laugh...ha hah funny man you think you’re so funny and then launch the physical attack.

@SaxendaSummer

He didn't defend his wife

He laughed along with everyone.... then apparently thought different and became a violent thug

She rolled her eyes at his abusive ‘joke’. Chris Rock was verbally abusive and Will Smith physically abusive - both should be banned and both have any awards taken away.