Uncensored video of Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars

I don't know where you live, but my representatives in government are dangerously close to slapping each other on any given day so I'd prefer that this reaction not be normalized.

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I just thought it was a hard slap/open hand smack and put Chris’s reaction (which I did also pick up on) down as top tier professionalism. No way was it staged with what he said afterwards either.

In London. Okay, I do see your point in that specific context. Although dear old British Parliament has historically been known for MPs getting rowdy, there’s not been (that I know of) any physical violence of this nature, but then again, there’s always a first time. And what a show that would be, with all the goings-on being televised!

Yes. 👏

In this climate, an international broadcast of physical violence at an awards ceremony is a very big deal. No matter the reasoning behind it.

Like if that's OK behavior for "high society" then we're all just royally screwed, aren't we?

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Also for the record I hope Will Smith gets arrested for this, if any mere mortal behaved in such a way, say at a comedy club we’d be locked up but Smith does it in front of millions of people and nothing. More fool him this will forever tarnish his win.

LAPD said they’d only file a report if the affected party complains, so doesn’t look like it for now.

If Smith was a white dude and slapped Rock's face, would he be allowed to receive the Oscar? Would he been arrested? Would he been allowed to continue there? It's just something for all of us to think. not trying to turn the conversation in white/black war here since I believe color shouldn't matter. But you know... woke Hollywood and SJWs are silent right now.

Yup, I was thinking that.

Will needs to get a couple tips from Juwan Howard on how to deliver a slap.

This, basically.

So many people have opinions based on nothing more than "I don't think that would look that way," with no real reason to think they really know how it would look. And, to be blunt, sometimes their idea of "how that should look" comes from TV and movies. How many people have you seen slapped across the face in real life? How many hundreds or thousands have you seen in TV shows and movies? IE: the places where they always react a normal way, almost always rub their cheek, etc.

I'm not sure why people think they can eyeball stuff and assess it like this. I guess everybody likes to think they've got a pretty good bead on the world, despite mounting evidence to the contrary everywhere.

Right, what we have here is a male millionaire slapping another in defense of "his" woman, and not only is he not escorted out of the building, he's literally awarded his profession's highest honor mere moments afterward. And then gives a half-apology that is more about how passionate he is. This is a terrible look for the Academy and sends a terrible message on many different levels. Male privilege, wealth privilege, etc. A PR nightmare, and I can't believe anyone thinks the Academy wanted this for "ratings".

I think it’s up to individuals to decide if they want to be better people. Endless self-improvement is more of a yoga cult by now, you can’t expect people to react to events based on what would make them better people in a progressive culture. It’s not exactly a top-priority consideration under duress/stress.

I agree that a line needs to be drawn. But this isn’t the first time Rock is making fun of Jada personally. He seems to just have a thing for making fun of her (read soft-bullying), which makes it even worse. It wasn’t random, it was an “Oh, let’s take the piss out of Jada again” kind of decision.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-...s-rock-oscars/

Also yes, she was “visibly upset”.

https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/was-will-smiths-slap-of-chris-rock-staged-why-his-response-to-jada-pinkett-smith-oscars-joke-seems-genuine-1543015

So much this.


People have a notion that how individuals handle their emotions is some universal thing, even though it is constantly shown not to be remotely the case.


It's the same error that leads people to think suspects are guilty of crimes they are entirely innocent of, simply because they didn't act how they think you are supposed to. "Why is that mother not sobbing uncontrollably? She must have been the one to have murdered her baby!" It's a fallacy that drives me nuts and is the cause of no end of bad situations.


In highly charged emotional situations people can behave in all sorts of unexpected ways. My friend laughs when he delivers bad news. I emotionally shut down and barely show any emotion at all, even though I'm someone who is so highly emotional I cry over songs and movies multiple times a week or even day.


Chris Rock was clearly in shock. Will Smith was clearly over come with rage. To expect them to have cut and dry emotions on their faces is to completely underestimate the complexity of being human.

Will wasn't. His initial, honest reaction was the same as everybody's - aside from Jada's - in that auditorium and the spirit in which the joke was clearly intended: her haircut is a similar style to Demi Moore's in a mostly forgotten 1997 movie that is generally only remembered at all because of said haircut. Jada rolled her eyes, Will and most everybody else chuckled. Seconds later he was avenging the honor of his wife as if she had been called a smelly whore.

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Yeah, and in some cases the way things were "off" was so subtle that it would be bizarre to script it that way.

After Rock was hit he said "That was the greatest night in the history of television." The phrasing there is wrong. Either it's the greatest thing or "this is the greatest night..." Same with "we're here to give a Documentary..." He's not a sputtering mess (like movies and TV might have us believe), and he's not perfectly stoic, because almost nobody can be in that situation. He tries to be tough and soldier on but is a bit shaken.

It also reminds me of how every single crime story that becomes high profile shows lots of "irregularities." As if those aren't there every time, as if anything looks exactly how it should (or how everybody thinks it should) when viewed up close and frame by frame. Every event is questionable, everything is a little funny or uncertain or confusing. That's life.

And if anyone's confused by the position of his hands and feet, I guess they've never experienced blocking. Stage direction is serious business and most people are just trying really hard not to screw up.



It's kind of amusing, really, that people ostensibly "seeing through" some alleged media ploy would be unconsciously using notions of behavior they got from media in the first place to determine what's plausible.

Makes perfect sense to me. Then he saw she was upset and that “triggered” him.

I think I understand what Will did and why he did it. Would I do the same? I'd certainly want to, but none of those things would make it or me right. He did the wrong thing and, like most very rich/powerful people who do the wrong thing (even in public) he'll more than likely get away with having done it. It is as it ever was.

You can throw all kinds of defenses for why he did it and that he should, but the truth is that it was wrong. Frankly, I'd have had more time for Jada going up there and doing it. It'd still be wrong, but at least she was the victim of the joke. This screams of that 'are you looking at my bird' mentality and makes me think this has more to do with something else than with what Chris said. You don't get the explosion from lighting a match, you get it from lighting the fuse.

Also, since when aren't you allowed to offend people? People have the right to be offended, that's their right, but people have the right to offend. It's only when that offense becomes illegal that there should be a problem and that is up to the lawmakers and (for the most part IMO) what they think will get them elected/re-elected or the people who lose money from actions such as boycotts.

For all the heat this will create, this is just something which happens thousands of times a day around the world. Someone said something he didn't like about 'his bird', so he lamped him. It's not big, it's not clever and it's not right. But, sadly, only the setting and the participants make it unusual.

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Clearly he was triggered. Just as clearly it was over something he knew was innocuous.

Well, for starters, when it comes to someone behaving in a criminal manner (assault) we can absolutely demand self improvement on how they behave. You don't hit people, unless it is in a case of self defence.


But outside of this situation, sure, I guess its true we can't force people people to be better people. But I know what leads to a garbage pit society, and it is one where we just start hitting people when we don't like something they did, and then shrugging our shoulders and saying 'but he was mad, why not?'


And for the record, if it hasn't already been stated, I hate Rock's joke. It was in poor taste and it was a lousy joke regardless of that. And his on stage defense of 'it was a GI Jane joke' is disingenuous. It was a 'bald woman' joke. A woman who has a condition and has been public about her struggle with it. I hate it.



But it's also just a joke. This doesn't mean jokes can't be cruel. Or they can't have a negative affect on a person. Or that people don't have every right to be outraged by a cruel or mean spirited joke. But the recourse to such things, if any, is to have people speak out against it. Make Rock potentially consider whether or not these kinds of jokes are worth it. In a society where we support free speech, we combat speech we don't like with better speech. It's an imperfect solution, but it is a hell of a lot better and more effective than what Will Smith did. Which accomplished exactly what? He just gave Rock another twenty minutes worth of material. Brilliant job there, Fresh Prince.