Will Smith Apologizes To Chris Rock For Slapping Him At The Oscars | Reaction And Initial Thoughts

Ok, so the entire news cycle since Monday has been dominated by the slap heard around the world.

Feels like everyone on the internet is this guy.

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As I’m sure you all know Will Smith got on stage during the Oscars and hit Chris Rock after he dropped a joke in which he said that Will’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith was gonna be in GI Jane 2.

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It’s the most talked about thing on the internet this week and Smith has since come out since the event and he’s given a full apology. Initially, he did talk about things during his best actor acceptance speech but this was viewed by many as being insincere as he didn’t apologise to Rock and he also brought up God and The Devil, rather than taking full responsibility himself.

Staged Slap?

There’s been a lot of controversy around the event itself with many even saying it’s staged but I really don’t think that it is. This is because of a number of reasons and things like this would need to be insured, pre-packaged and properly cleared before they happen. You’d also have to ask what either would get out of this and though the Oscars might have paid them they’d basically be accepting money to ruin their reputations. You have to think about whether the Oscars would even be willing to put forward money for that as it makes them look really bad as well due to the lack of security. It says a lot when someone can just walk up on stage during the event and hit someone and then not get escorted out because I don’t think that anyone would benefit from this being staged.

Rock has been criticised for making distasteful jokes, the Oscars for their lack of care around the entire thing and Smith has had his best actor award overshadowed by it.

Think about it like this, if you’re an actor in movies then the Best Actor Award at the Oscars is the highest accolade you can get. There’s absolutely nothing above that and there’s no way to me that Smith would want to take away the limelight from that by doing something like this in a staged position.

There are also all the memes that have come out of it and yeah, if the guys doing a PR stunt then he’d probably wanna do one that makes him look good.

Since then Smith has posted a full apology on Instagram and throughout this video we’re gonna be going over it, giving our thoughts and also discussing the possible outcomes of the situation.

Now the post begins by saying.

Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behaviour at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.

Now one of the big things that have come out around the discussion involving the altercation is Jada’s medical condition alopecia. We still don’t know if Rock knew about this and though lots of people have said that she’s been very open about this I don’t think that it’s as widely known as people think it is. I certainly didn’t know and I doubt that Rock did too which is why he didn’t feel bad dropping jokes about it. Jada looks good like that and I think the fact she has her head out proudly makes most people just assume it’s a choice rather than a disease.

Now I sound and feel ignorant saying that and I did have a follower reach out to me to discuss why this goes just beyond a bald joke. I’ve blurred their name out as I don’t want them getting any backlash and I have spoken to them privately about things.

But they basically came at it from a standpoint that I shouldn’t really talk about it because there are nuances in the joke that I don’t really understand. They then discussed how in America Black people’s hair especially women’s is viewed as being unprofessional in the workplace.

They then brought up the crown act which was only passed recently that allowed Black people to wear their hair naturally and not be penalised at work. It brings up a whole different discussion about how just having your natural hair can be considered unprofessional and making a joke like this at the Oscars which is viewed as the white establishment was a bad place to drop it.

It’s something I honestly didn’t even consider when making the video and with this being, on the world stage, I thought it was fair game. I wasn’t even gonna make this video but then I thought it’s probably worse to cover just the negative thing and not the positive one that follows as it looks like I’m just bothered about the views and not the story itself. Anyway, some stuff to bear in mind there for the joke by Rock. Again do I think he considered any of this or her alopecia? No, I think he even kinda showed that with his follow up comment.

Keep It Out Your Mouth, OK!?

If he did think he was making fun of a disease I don’t think he would’ve said this because yeah…just doesn’t make sense to make fun of something that bad and then say it was a nice one.

Smith then followed this up by saying.

I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.

I would also like to apologize to the Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees and everyone watching around the world. I would like to apologize to the Williams Family and my King Richard Family. I deeply regret that my behaviour has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us.

I am a work in progress.

Sincerely,

Will

So yeah I do think it’s a genuine apology even if some people think it isn’t sincere. This is a big blow to Smith’s reputation and he’s had a number of things over the last couple of years that people have weaponised against him. A lot of people pointed out that he did laugh at the joke after Rock dropped it and it was only upon seeing Jada’s reaction that he got up.

I can totally see this too and I even saw some tweets saying he should’ve punched himself in the face first for laughing which, I thought was a bit funny.

However, thinking about it the guy was probably just laughing and saving face at the time before he really weighed up what it meant. Again I don’t think he should’ve got on stage and did it but I’ve been in situations where a joke crossed the line and I’ve just laughed at it but felt uncomfortable.

Still, I think there was a time and a place to talk to Rock about this and Smith chose the worst time and place to do it.

Temper Temper

This is a great example of why you shouldn’t lose your temper in public as it can cause a lot of issues. All that hard work he’s done his entire life to get to the point he wins the best actor has been whisked away and now everyone is dunking on him or getting into arguments in order to defend him. There are no real winners here at all and everyone comes out looking terrible.

Now from this conversation has also come one over whether he should give his award back or not.

Personally, I don’t think he should as it’s an award for a performance in a film that had nothing to do with him hitting Rock. I also think that in general there’s been a lot of people given awards that have done way, way worse than this and it’s never really been brought up.

I think the Academy will probably allow him to keep it but they might hit a point where they ban him from the ceremony.

They might not even nominate him for any future awards and we know they’re adept at snubbing people. However, if he continues to deliver then they could be forced to do it but either way, this is gonna loom large over every awards ceremony that he attends.

Now again I’m gonna ask you what you think as I know there are lots of different opinions on it. I’m also gonna ask you to keep it civil and leave your thoughts in the comments below.