Will Smith Got His Feelings Hurt at the Oscars and Hit a Comic, Now Come the Real Jokes – Opinion

The Oscars wanted to boost ratings and Will Smith may have helped that. It may have cost Chris Rock a lot, but it was worth it.

Hollywood will momentarily be glad.

I’m sure by now you have seen the video of “The Slap” seen and heard around the world. Here’s the original story, posted by Susie Moore last night after it occurred. Oscars So Fight. From that article…

However, I was not prepared to see the exchange between Will Smith and Chris Rock. Rock cracked a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, saying he was looking forward to “GI Jane 2” (presumably in reference to her shorn head — Pinkett Smith purportedly suffers from alopecia). Jada seemed unsatisfied by the joke. Will then walked toward Rock, initially appearing to laugh it off.

That was — until Smith hauled off and smacked him.

VIA JAPANESE TV: A uncensored exchange between Will Smith & Chris Rock pic.twitter.com/j0Z184ZyXa

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) March 28, 2022

Rock clearly was stunned by the confrontation. Chris Rock is an amazing comic, but not a great actor. Smith appears to be on an errand, as you can clearly see in the video that was captured by Japanese TV friends.

He yells: “Keep My wife’s name out of your [email protected]#$%G Mouth!”  This he does twice. The audience’s reactions can be seen from their reaction. They thought that it was part and parcel of the show. But they quickly realized that Smith had snapped.

Rock handled himself damn near perfectly at first, joking that Will Smith had just smacked the s*** out of him. Rock calmly explained it was an G.I. Jane laughed, and he continued. 

Smith was missing the point. Joke.

Smith was both applauded as well as chastised by his obvious overreaction.

The repercussions of this are still in the beginning.

There has been a small but growing movement of comics for a couple of years now starting to push back on the notion that there are things that can’t be said because people’s feelings get hurt. RedState has written about it in the past by myself and other RedStaters. Let me give you an example from last year. Saving America is possible with comics such as Ricky Gervais (Dave Chappelle), and Bill Burr.

Chris Rock is one of the most successful and respected comics of the last 25 years and he told a mild joke last night about Will Smith’s wife, Jada. This joke was mildly offensive because Rock could, and would, have admitted that Jada had infideled in the marriage.

So if anyone thinks that Chris Rock’s peers are going to sit by and allow one of their own to be attacked over a joke, you are going to watch a magnificent display of how good comics can dissect you in a heartbeat. I’m not talking just about big names either — you are going to have up-and-comers, people who are somewhat known, all dive in on how Smith totally overreacted to this joke.

Will Smith will verbally kick anyone who dares to, and it is not going away.

You are part of today’s problem if you feel that you were justified in protecting your wife from such a stupid joke. Everybody understands that it is important to defend a loved one against any kind of attack. Yet this was not a life-and-death matter — this was, at worst, a lame joke. An assault is not an excuse for hurt feelings.

Smith might have laughed at Rock’s joke instead of making fun of it. Then after the show or at one of the afterparties, he could have pulled Chris aside and told him he didn’t find it funny. Smith now gives the impression that you are in control of your emotions and that your reactions can be justified.

It is, however, Hollywood-style nonsense.

One of my close friends posted this on Twitter immediately after WIll’s overload and breakdown

What if all those who have ever been hurt by comedians were able to just go up and punch them in their faces? You must grow up man!

It is perfect.

Unfortunately for Will and Jada Smith, they won’t be able to stop the onslaught of people laughing at their expense via the profession of professional comics. The former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air thought that he was being Superman and defending his gal like that, but he’s not going to be able to intimidate or punch all of the comedians that are going to be coming after him in the next couple of years. The comedians will make his stomach look like a turkey-sized 25-pound Thanksgiving dinner. It’ll be quite funny.

Simply put, when you overreact to a  joke you become the butt of a joke for a very long time and WIll Smith deserves every bit of what is coming to him.