Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at Oscars

[Bobby5280]

That's just it, I got how low brow the joke was because I saw the movie and knew the gist about Jada Smith's personal issues.  The latter was probably infinitely way more known in a modern context than the movie reference was.  I don't even know how people got the reference that were in the crowd at the Oscars.  That's a lot of pieces to put together to even understand the joke at hand.  I doubt many would have if Will Smith would have reacted like he did.

G.I. Jane is an old movie, but not all that old (late 1990's). Many of the AMPAS members are middle aged and older. It's also common knowledge that military recruits often get their hair buzzed skull-short in boot camp. They don't really do that with female recruits, but then Demi Moore buzz-cut her own head in the movie. Anyway, the reference was obvious enough for Gen-Z aged people to understand it.

Is Q telling you guys that this was staged? This is clearly a guy reacting badly to a rude joke.

The only way that could have been staged is if Will Smith and Chris Rock secretly set it up without anyone else knowing. Like one of those classic Andy Kaufman pranks. There is absolutely no way it could have been a scripted part of the actual TV production. That moment basically derailed the rest of the broadcast and ruined any moments for awards winners after the slap. A lot of movie industry people are pretty angry about it. Even with Will Smith and Chris Rock making amends Smith likely faces at least some consequences, like maybe not being invited to the ceremony next year to present the next Best Actress Oscar, among other things.

I didn't see the joke, but Chris Rock should have had more class and not say what he did. If her hair loss is not on purpose but part of a syndrome effect, he should have showed empathy toward her suffering.

I find it especially baffling Chris Rock of all people would say such an insensitive joke given one of his past projects. He starred in and co-produced the excellent documentary Good Hair in 2009. He knows as well as any man just how important good hair is to black women. They have to put a lot of time, work and money into maintaining their hair. That's even without having a terrible issue like alopecia enter the equation. He knew better yet still went after Jada's baldness for a cheap laugh. It passed the line of going into cruel territory.

How come The Grammys never deleted Axel Rose swearing decades ago when Guns n Roses won an award?

Maybe the sound guy was too busy sniffing lines of coke off the console board.

[SectorZ]

Is Q telling you guys that this was staged? This is clearly a guy reacting badly to a rude joke.

No, the fact that Will Smith once played a boxer in a movie yet had such a fake-ass slapstick sissy-slap of Rock does (that Rock seemed to be bracing for well before windup). That and that no security intervened during or after.

Not everything needs to be made into some moronic political take. Tying weird Trump cults into this is pretty lame.

[Scott5114]

What would a full power punch that could do actual damage to Rock's face accomplish that a slap didn't? An actual hard punch would have made Smith look worse and made people more sympathetic to Rock, and would have increased the chances that Rock needed medical attention and that he might want to file an actual assault charge against him. As it was, the slap got the message across that Rock had crossed a line in Smith's eyes and it was already plenty disruptive to the show.

Only a fool goes out and uses their full power when they can accomplish their goal with something lighter.

[hbelkins]

The memes this has spawned are off the charts. It might be time to retire the Batman-Robin meme permanently or give it meme emeritus status.

Since I don't really follow pop culture, I had no idea that Jada has a medical condition that causes hair loss. Is it possible that Rock also did not know? (Not that it would really matter, I suppose, if you go on the pretext that a comment on one's appearance is never acceptable.)

What would a full power punch that could do actual damage to Rock's face accomplish that a slap didn't? An actual hard punch would have made Smith look worse and made people more sympathetic to Rock, and would have increased the chances that Rock needed medical attention and that he might want to file an actual assault charge against him. As it was, the slap got the message across that Rock had crossed a line in Smith's eyes and it was already plenty disruptive to the show.

Only a fool goes out and uses their full power when they can accomplish their goal with something lighter.

In that case, why strike him at all? Why not just go up there and recite the "Keep my wife's name out yo f-ing mouth" line?

[Bobby5280]

What would a full power punch that could do actual damage to Rock's face accomplish that a slap didn't?

A grown man open-hand slapping another man actually works as one hell of an insult.

I really loved the classic skit from the Chappelle Show, Charlie Murphy's True Stories of Hollywood where Murphy talks about getting slapped by Rick James at a party:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FmYmdGRONI

Charlie Murphy: "First of all, you don't slap a man. Okay? I mean even when slapping was fashionable, and y'know they did it in Paris and a guy would come up (whap-pap), 'I challenge you to a duel!' They had a gunfight after that. Somebody had to go."

[J N Winkler]

My take:

*  I knew nothing of this and had no suspicion something interesting had happened at the Oscars (other than CODA winning Best Picture) until a Facebook friend mentioned something about alopecia.

*  I initially thought Will Smith had hit Dwayne Johnson.

*  The reaction to this has been and will continue to be extremely polarized--it is a very blunt and (literally) in-your-face reminder of how imperfectly housebroken traditional masculinity is.  When all is said and done, I don't think Will Smith will be the worse off for it, but it represents a pivot for him in terms of image management.

[JayhawkCO]

Is Q telling you guys that this was staged? This is clearly a guy reacting badly to a rude joke.

No, the fact that Will Smith once played a boxer in a movie yet had such a fake-ass slapstick sissy-slap of Rock does (that Rock seemed to be bracing for well before windup). That and that no security intervened during or after.

Not everything needs to be made into some moronic political take. Tying weird Trump cults into this is pretty lame.

What's Q have to (directly) do with politics? I only referenced it because anyone who thinks this is staged is (IMO) a conspiracy theorist.

[Bobby5280]

*  I initially thought Will Smith had hit Dwayne Johnson.

If Will Smith had slapped Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson we might be reading details of Smith's obituary today.

When the news about Jada's affair (and their "open marriage") was going thru the media cycle the rapper 50 Cent said some pretty nasty things about it. From my chair it doesn't look like Smith did anything to correct 50 Cent on that. It's not all that impressive for a Hollywood "leading man" to slap a skinny, middle-aged comedian.

Although the joke was terrible and cruel, Chris Rock handled the aftermath in a pretty grown-up, professional way.

[SectorZ]

Is Q telling you guys that this was staged? This is clearly a guy reacting badly to a rude joke.

No, the fact that Will Smith once played a boxer in a movie yet had such a fake-ass slapstick sissy-slap of Rock does (that Rock seemed to be bracing for well before windup). That and that no security intervened during or after.

Not everything needs to be made into some moronic political take. Tying weird Trump cults into this is pretty lame.

What's Q have to (directly) do with politics? I only referenced it because anyone who thinks this is staged is (IMO) a conspiracy theorist.

"Conspiracy theorist". Good grief...

Bringing up Q-Anon is not political? It is literally labeled on wikipedia, first sentence, as a "political conspiracy theory". IMO, anyone who thinks Q-Anon is not political is, well, you know...

[Scott5114]

Is Q telling you guys that this was staged? This is clearly a guy reacting badly to a rude joke.

No, the fact that Will Smith once played a boxer in a movie yet had such a fake-ass slapstick sissy-slap of Rock does (that Rock seemed to be bracing for well before windup). That and that no security intervened during or after.

Not everything needs to be made into some moronic political take. Tying weird Trump cults into this is pretty lame.

What's Q have to (directly) do with politics? I only referenced it because anyone who thinks this is staged is (IMO) a conspiracy theorist.

Not to get too lost in the weeds here–this is not an invitation for political debate, but meant as an explanatory summary–but the QAnon conspiracy has some pretty specific beliefs that Donald Trump was going to commit various actions while in office (most of which never came to pass), and after the 2020 election, that Trump was going to reassume the office using various dubious legal mechanics (e.g. that certain laws that the government treats as being on the books were not "legitimately" passed and therefore were conveniently void in this particular situation).

[JayhawkCO]

Is Q telling you guys that this was staged? This is clearly a guy reacting badly to a rude joke.

No, the fact that Will Smith once played a boxer in a movie yet had such a fake-ass slapstick sissy-slap of Rock does (that Rock seemed to be bracing for well before windup). That and that no security intervened during or after.

Not everything needs to be made into some moronic political take. Tying weird Trump cults into this is pretty lame.

What's Q have to (directly) do with politics? I only referenced it because anyone who thinks this is staged is (IMO) a conspiracy theorist.

"Conspiracy theorist". Good grief...

Bringing up Q-Anon is not political? It is literally labeled on wikipedia, first sentence, as a "political conspiracy theory". IMO, anyone who thinks Q-Anon is not political is, well, you know...

Fine. Not Q-Anoners. Instead, Bigfoot believers. Nessie fans. Whatever. Belief in something without even the first semblance of evidence makes someone a conspiracy theorist. These are the same people that in the NCAA tournament thread that think that Duke and North Carolina meeting in the Final Four means the NCAA staged it.

Big Willy was pissed someone made a joke about his wife and hit him. The end of story.

I meant more that Q-Anoners are knuckleheads who will believe anything fanciful "just cuz", and that they didn't inherently care about the politics of it. Perhaps I misspoke, but hopefully my position is clear.

[Bobby5280]

I think the conspiracy theorist types are taking part in a form of tribalism, being part of a "club" with other like-minded individuals, even if the shared idea is pure bullshit. I really have to question the value of going down the rabbit hole with that sort of group-think. Some of the Q-stuff for instance just makes me bust out laughing. It is so bat-shit stupid -like that JFK Jr angle. I would be embarrassed to admit any association to that group, much less take part in public rallies to promote the idea.

[hbelkins]

Which is more far-fetched: Believing that the Smith-Rock incident was staged, or believing that pro wrestling is real and not scripted?

[JayhawkCO]

Which is more far-fetched: Believing that the Smith-Rock incident was staged, or believing that pro wrestling is real and not scripted?

I think the Venn Diagram for those two groups might be a circle. 

[Max Rockatansky]

Which is more far-fetched: Believing that the Smith-Rock incident was staged, or believing that pro wrestling is real and not scripted?

How many people are still under the delusion that professional wrestling isn't anything more than a scripted performance?

Given how ungainly the whole confrontation, slap and the things uttered during the Will Smith/Christ Rock incident were it struck me as authentic.  A performance would have at least some minimal level of choreography to it.   

[Stephane Dumas]

Some parodies and more memes of that event had appeared on the web.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CReB-pHyugw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olQ2bA84lKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOBDMlX3Z10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXGEjxoBXLU

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Any discussion that this was fake ended when Rock had to confirm he wasn't going to pursue having charges filed against Smith.

[jeffandnicole]

Any discussion that this was fake ended when Rock had to confirm he wasn't going to pursue having charges filed against Smith.

Probably just a formality. Police had to ask. Doesn't mean it wasn't scripted

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Had the attack been real, the later would have been done.  It wasn't, because the script didn't call for that, just the slap.

I think this line undercuts your own assertion that it was staged, because if it was scripted, why did Smith then abruptly go so far off-script?

[JoePCool14]

Is Q telling you guys that this was staged? This is clearly a guy reacting badly to a rude joke.

No, the fact that Will Smith once played a boxer in a movie yet had such a fake-ass slapstick sissy-slap of Rock does (that Rock seemed to be bracing for well before windup). That and that no security intervened during or after.

Not everything needs to be made into some moronic political take. Tying weird Trump cults into this is pretty lame.

What's Q have to (directly) do with politics? I only referenced it because anyone who thinks this is staged is (IMO) a conspiracy theorist.

"Conspiracy theorist". Good grief...

Bringing up Q-Anon is not political? It is literally labeled on wikipedia, first sentence, as a "political conspiracy theory". IMO, anyone who thinks Q-Anon is not political is, well, you know...

Fine. Not Q-Anoners. Instead, Bigfoot believers. Nessie fans. Whatever. Belief in something without even the first semblance of evidence makes someone a conspiracy theorist. These are the same people that in the NCAA tournament thread that think that Duke and North Carolina meeting in the Final Four means the NCAA staged it.

Big Willy was pissed someone made a joke about his wife and hit him. The end of story.

I meant more that Q-Anoners are knuckleheads who will believe anything fanciful "just cuz", and that they didn't inherently care about the politics of it. Perhaps I misspoke, but hopefully my position is clear.

Some things shouldn't be taken at face value. This incident is one of them. There's a lot of incentive for them to stage something like this for attention. It doesn't mean that they staged it for sure. But at this point, I don't believe much that comes from an industry that has the gall to call out average Americans for being rapists when their own industry is tainted with sexual harassment/assault to the point where it's the norm.

[ErmineNotyours]

How come The Grammys never deleted Axel Rose swearing decades ago when Guns n Roses won an award?

Is the 10 second delay something of this century.

The technology has been around since at least the 1987 American Comedy Awards.  Children of a Lesser God came out the year before, and a presenter was discussing sign language with the deaf star of the movie.  An "OOPS!!" slide came on the screen for a few seconds, presumably covering up a hand gesture that the censor didn't find family-friendly.  Also Leslie Nielson had a routine where he uses a hand-held fart noise maker, and that was censored, even though that sound is in every family movie these days.

After Janet Jackson's boob (was that planned ahead of time?) the networks have been more careful about live events.

Last year's Oscars was so boring that I skipped this year's.  I'm on a graveyard shift, so I had to take advantage of a rare opportunity to go out and walk during good-weather daylight.

[roadman65]

Whenever I think of Q, I think of John DeLancey's character on Star Trek TNG and currently on its spin-off Picard.

[SSOWorld]

Whenever I think of Q, I think of John DeLancey's character on Star Trek TNG and currently on its spin-off Picard.

[hbelkins]

I don't know how it works for television, but a delay has been used in radio for eons. Primarily to prevent callers from cursing.

I distinctly remember two live sporting events where a delay would have been beneficial. One was an SEC basketball tournament game back in the early 1980s. I was in college at the time, and Norm Sloan was the coach at Florida. They put a live mic in his huddle during a time out just in time to hear him complain, "GD it, they're getting too many f-ing layups!" Tom Hammond was the announcer, and he spent the next few minutes apologizing. This was on broadcast TV, not a cable network.

And there was one instance at a NASCAR race that was televised on ESPN, not one of the broadcast networks. They cut to Dale Jarrett's radio channel just in time to hear Todd Parrott, his crew chief, drop a MF-bomb. Something like "we need to put a set of 40-bleed shocks on that MFer!" Once again, Bob Jenkins had to apologize profusely.

[roadman65]

In Radio contests are done during a song just in case a caller reacts to being the one to get through, by swearing accidentally. Then the overall conversation it's cut shorter to fit between songs as there is more to it then what you only hear on air.

Also if the DJ asks for Caller 9 to be the winner, there really is no caller 9 they're looking for. It's an excuse to dismiss a caller if he or she isn't excited enough to want the contest prize. 

I took a studio tour of Cox in Orlando when the Country Station had a contest. One caller was not at all excited when he called, so the DJ said " Sorry you're not caller 10!"  Then moved onto a lady who was excited, and called her out as caller ten.  Then the DJ showed the phone conversation edited in the process and told us that no caller is live just in case the caller acts too crazy and drops an F Bomb on the air.