Will Smith served up one of the all-time best TV moments when he stormed on stage and slapped Chris Rock after he told a joke about his wife, specifically referencing her alopecia.
I don’t really know how to feel about this. In some ways I’m pro-slap. It was a tremendous bit of TV and, let’s be honest, it’s the best thing to happen to the Oscars for a very long time.
I can’t be the only one who watches that kind of self-serving Hollywood nonsense wishing I could slap absolutely everybody in the entire room.
There is an argument that what Will Smith did was quite romantic…in a way. His wife’s medical condition had just been the butt of a joke in one of the most public settings imaginable and Smith stood up for her.
Will Smith hits at Chris Rock as Rock spoke on stage during the 94th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Brian Snyder
What Will Smith did happens all the time. Every single weekend outside a Wetherspoons someone gets slapped for being disrespectful to someone else’s wife. Ok, more like glassed than slapped but The Oscars is of course much classier than your local Spoons.
But it did expose a lot of Hollywood hypocrisy, didn’t it? These woke virtue signalling luvvies will jump on any bandwagon they can.
The plight of the Native American people, the environment, trans rights. Presumably it’s only a matter of time before they start harping on about how plankton is a sentient being and whales must be cancelled for eating it.
But when a man physically assaults another man on stage, there’s no outrage. In fact, Will Smith got a standing ovation just moments later when he won best actor.
For someone who has gone on marches to protest against violence, Will Smith certainly doesn’t mind dishing it out himself.
And just think about this – in that room at the Oscars they all bang on about privilege, don’t they. White privilege, male privilege…what about Will Smith’s privilege?
If I’d have just gone on stage and slapped Chris Rock I’d probably be in jail now. But Will Smith gets away with it. Why? Because he’s a Hollywood millionaire, he was about to win an award, after all. Chris Rock isn’t pressing charges. Why? Because it’s Will Smith, and Rock knows he’d look like a bit of a wet lettuce if he got the police involved. Again, Will Smith has immense privilege there.
The audience response to Smith’s Best Actor win just shows the fakery of it all. JK Rowling gets cancelled for saying women are women, Will Smith commits an assault and that’s absolutely fine.
Their priorities are all off.
Will Smith then had the cheek to come on stage and say he wanted to be a vessel for love. I mean, if that’s what love looks like I’d hate to see his version of hate.
Like I said, I’m not actually that bothered about the slap, mostly because it TV gold, but I am bothered about Hollywood’s double standards. They can’t have it both ways – standing up and clapping a man who has just assaulted another man on stage is hardly woke. Having said that, that is a room full of people who all gushed about Harvey Weinstein for decades so I suppose this is just par for the course.
Will Smith said he wants to be a vessel for love. Hollywood is just a vessel for hypocrisy.
