At the 94th Oscars Will Smith broke the internet when he got up from his seat and slapped host Chris Rock following a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
During the Oscars in 2022, Chris told a joke and referred to Jada and her shaven head. He told her: “Jada, I love you – I can’t wait for GI Jane 2” in reference to the 1997 movie which features Demi Moore shaving her head. 52-year-old Jada Pinkett Smith revealed in 2018 she was suffering from alopecia, and it’s the reason she shaved her hair. Unhappy with the TV host’s joke, Will, 55, got up on stage and smacked Chris across the face. He then returned to his seat and yelled at Chris to “keep my wife’s name out your f****** mouth.”
What did Chris Rock say after the infamous Oscars slap?
Immediately after the Oscars slap, Chris Rock said: “Wow, Will Smith just smacked the s*** out of me.” However, the celebrity didn’t directly address the incident for a long time, instead, making small comments mainly during gigs. Much of his narrative is Chris insisting he is “not the victim” and joking he won’t properly address it ‘until he gets paid.’
Days after the slap on March 30, he returned to performing and told the crowd in Boston: “I’m still processing what happened.”
He later told the crowd after being given a standing ovation: “Y’all are getting me misty-eyed and s***.”
Meanwhile, at another show a day later, the crowd began chanting “F*** Will Smith” but Chris, 59, quickly shut it down. He told the crowd: “No, no, no, no, no.” He then moved on to the next part of his routine without saying anymore.
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On April 2 while performing in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he said he’d had an “interesting week” and joked about Atlantic City being close to Philadelphia – Will Smith’s hometown.
“The general vibe of the comment was that Atlantic City could be hostile territory because it’s so close to Philly. It was said in a casual joking way and everyone laughed,” a source told US Weekly.
A few days later on April 6, the comedian addressed the crowd who brought up the situation from the award show and told them: ‘Lower your expectations. I’m not going to address that s***.”
A week later, on April 10, he opened up about his state of mind while onstage in California. He told those in attendance about how he is doing: “Life is good. I got my hearing back. I’m OK, I have a whole show, and I’m not talking about that until I get paid.”
The next month, the Hollywood star performed a routine with controversial comedian Dave Chappelle. Dave was attacked onstage and afterward, trying to lighten the mood, Chris asked: “Was that Will Smith?”
Similar to his joke on April 10, Chris told his audience at the Royal Albert Hall in London at another gig: “Don’t expect me to talk about the bulls***. I’ll talk about it at some point — on Netflix. Your tickets were expensive, but not that expensive.”
Chris says he is ‘not a victim’
Two months later, he told his audience in Holmdel, New Jersey he wasn’t a “victim.”
He said: “Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face. I’m not a victim, motherf***** … Yeah, that s*** hurt, motherf*****. But I shook that s*** off and went to work the next day … I don’t go to the hospital for a paper cut.”
On August 28, he addressed hosting the Oscars again and said he had turned down hosting 2023’s ceremony. He likened it to returning to the scene of a crime, using the OJ Simpson case as an example. He said taking to that stage again would be like telling Nicole Brown Simpson “to go back to the restaurant” where she had left her glasses just hours before she was killed.
After remarking on Jada’s appearance at the Academy Awards, the movie star called Will “just as ugly as the rest of us”, at a show in the September. When asked by Dave, 50 if “that s*** hurt” Chris responded: “Goddamn right … the motherf***** hit me over a bulls*** joke, the nicest joke I ever told.”
“Will did the impression of a perfect person for 30 years, and he ripped his mask off. … Whatever the consequences are … I hope he doesn’t put his mask back on again and lets his real face breathe. I see myself in both men,” he added.
In March last year, his Netflix special, Selective Outrage, was released. Chris Rock addressed the Oscars slap and reaffirmed his belief he was not a victim but admitted it “still hurt.”
He said: “I’m not a victim. You will never see [me crying about it]. Never gonna happen. Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face. … I got smacked at the f***ing Oscars by this motherf*****. And people are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts.”
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