Will Smith hits Chris Rock on Oscars stage

jpaul said:
rock then embellished what he had said , so proud of (up)himself - I think Will had the right to revise the polite laughter he might have been employing ,
Rock did have the option to be a little more self-aware and sensitive before it went nuclear,
Rock has obviously not got got a very flight or fight street aware survival instinct if he didn't realise why Will approached him on the stage - for a hug ?
maybe the organising commitee will realise for future years that a crap comedian, irrespective of Will incident, doesn't do the awards any service.
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You expect the guy laughing at your joke come up to slap you?

I guess slapping happens at the Oscar often so that he should be expecting that too.
 
Chojin said:
Even without the physical violence, if Will Smith had just sat there shouting his mouth off, that would have told me everything I needed to know about him. A total lack of class and self awareness.
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But, if that all he did then everyone would be on Will's side and Rock would have looked like an *******. It was the slap that crossed the line
 
Raymond Lin said:
You expect the guy laughing at your joke come up to slap you?
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I subsequently listened to some more of this rock's comedy 'bring the pain' - it is dire for english taste , yes, not worthy of stooping to a slap, times have changed since the days of Prescott, pity we spared the rod with Putin, though ....
guess Will got lost in a 'I don't think it's nice, you laughing. You see, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him' hommage
 
jpaul said:
I subsequently listened to some more of this rock's comedy 'bring the pain' - it is dire for english taste , yes, not worthy of stooping to a slap, times have changed since the days of Prescott, pity we spared the rod with Putin, though ....
guess Will got lost in a 'I don't think it's nice, you laughing. You see, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him' hommage
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You seem to be confused with other things that has nothing to do with this incident.
 
Raymond Lin said:
You seem to be confused with other things that has nothing to do with this incident.
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other incidents of violence in public, but a while ago - guess you wern't aware

So, this weekend, I see police aren't continuing with Noel Clarke prosecution - that's related too, whether his career is over.
 
jpaul said:
other incidents of violence in public, but a while ago - guess you wern't aware

So, this weekend, I see police aren't continuing with Noel Clarke prosecution - that's related too, whether his career is over.
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You are still dragging OTHER things into this.

Who the heck is Noel Clarke? Who cares? The only thing that the police or anyone is concerned about is that he slapped someone over a joke. Will Smith didn't slap him over a different joke at a different place. No one's career is over because of Noel Clarke, Will Smith's career is on the line because of this incident.

This incident, not something else.
 
whole thing is a mess and has totally been blown out of proportion imo.

Rock - should not have said what he did... it was wrong. Now i am not one of these cancel culture folk. if you go to his stand up, you know - or should know - what he is like and you are then knowingly putting your self in the firing line of what is not a family friendly comedian............ However this wasnt that, it was an awards ceremony...... Other people - who i do find genuinely funny - have also crossed that line imo and have gotten away with it.

Smith......... should not have hit him, simple as that.

But lets not pretend this was a punch designed to hurt Rock. Will Smith is a trained boxer. if he had wanted to hurt Rock then he would have been floored. This was a slap, intended to shock and humiliate Rock imo - which is arguably the effect Rocks comments about Smiths wife had.

again, i am not defending it, there were no winners in this whole thing (well aside from the clickbait press, they will be loving it).

they have both apologised afaik, IMO the best thing which could happen now would be for them both to shake hands and move on..... talk of removing Smiths awards or it ending his career is a complete over step imo, this is not a Mel Gibson type scenario with what seems to be long term abusive actions, it would appear to be a 1 off red mist which was largely provoked with ultimately no harm done for which he has apologised.

If i was Chris Rock i would like to think i would come out publicly and say something similar to this as well...... if i made a joke about the husband or wife of someone about a medical condition (even if in ignorance but i am not sure i believe that tbh) and got slapped for it, i would like to think i would be big enough to say enough is enough now lets move on.

PS Smith and her relationship should have no bearing on this at all, it has nothing to do with it. Different strokes for different folks and what works for them is their business and no one elses.......
 
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bigmike20vt said:
whole thing is a mess and has totally been blown out of proportion imo.

Rock - should not have said what he did... it was wrong. Now i am not one of these cancel culture folk. if you go to his stand up, you know - or should know - what he is like and you are then knowingly putting your self in the firing line of what is not a family friendly comedian............ However this wasnt that, it was an awards ceremony...... Other people - who i do find genuinely funny - have also crossed that line imo and have gotten away with it.

Smith......... should not have hit him, simple as that.

But lets not pretend this was a punch designed to hurt Rock. Will Smith is a trained boxer. if he had wanted to hurt Rock then he would have been floored. This was a slap, intended to shock and humiliate Rock imo - which is arguably the effect Rocks comments about Smiths wife had.

again, i am not defending it, there were no winners in this whole thing (well aside from the clickbait press, they will be loving it).

they have both apologised afaik, IMO the best thing which could happen now would be for them both to shake hands and move on..... talk of removing Smiths awards or it ending his career is a complete over step imo, this is not a Mel Gibson type scenario with what seems to be long term abusive actions, it would appear to be a 1 off red mist which was largely provoked with ultimately no harm done for which he has apologised.

If i was Chris Rock i would like to think i would come out publicly and say something similar to this as well...... if i made a joke about the husband or wife of someone about a medical condition (even if in ignorance but i am not sure i believe that tbh) and got slapped for it, i would like to think i would be big enough to say enough is enough now lets move on.

PS Smith and her relationship should have no bearing on this at all, it has nothing to do with it. Different strokes for different folks and what works for them is their business and no one elses.......
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The issue here is that once you start censoring what a comedian can or cannot say, you start to tread into the waters of their First Amendment. Which Americans will defend to their death. Even those who supports Will Smith would defend that.

Which means you can’t start controlling comedy. Sure you can criticise it after, and you can ridicule the comic after but he should be allowed to tell the joke in the first place.

I understand that on an award show, jokes should be light hearted and honestly, from my perspective, that was a NICE joke. The connection and connodation to her illness is on the listener. The joke itself does not state or refer to any illness whatsoever. It only refer to her likeness to G.I. Jane. The Likeness, and how you interpret it, that is down to the listener. If you interpret it the negative way, i.e. to her illness, that is all down to you. I actually just took it on the surface, she looks like G.I. Jane. End of story, I didn’t dig into why she shaved her head. For all I know, she shaved it for a role.

I said before, had he said “Jada, I love you, but you look like you just had Chemo.”

Now, that would be wrong. He said “Jada, I love ya, G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it."

There is no reference in the joke to any illness.

As for Will Smith, he took it wrong, and he then reacted wrong. There is zero excuse for what he has done, there is no excuse for violence over a joke in front of millions. How he made the connection, a slap vs a punch, IRRELEVANT. The only thing that matter is that he hit him.

There really is only a few points here that people need to remember

1 - Comcis are allowed to say what they wanted to say, especially when they are invited, hired, scripted and proof read to tell the jokes that they are hired to do. People might be offended by the joke, but the academy has already approved it beforehand. Chris Rock didn’t gatecrash on the evening and started hosting.

2 - The audience is not allowed to get up on the stage to assault the host or anyone. Whether it is the Janitor or Will Smith.

The only person crossing the line here is Will Smith. Had he not done that, nobody would have remembered the joke. He himself would have forgotten it had he laughed on for another 2 seconds.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
The issue here is that once you start censoring what a comedian can or cannot say, you start to tread into the waters of their First Amendment. Which Americans will defend to their death. Even those who supports Will Smith would defend that.

Which means you can’t start controlling comedy. Sure you can criticise it after, and you can ridicule the comic after but he should be allowed to tell the joke in the first place.

I understand that on an award show, jokes should be light hearted and honestly, from my perspective, that was a NICE joke. The connection and connodation to her illness is on the listener. The joke itself does not state or refer to any illness whatsoever. It only refer to her likeness to G.I. Jane. The Likeness, and how you interpret it, that is down to the listener. If you interpret it the negative way, i.e. to her illness, that is all down to you. I actually just took it on the surface, she looks like G.I. Jane. End of story, I didn’t dig into why she shaved her head. For all I know, she shaved it for a role.

I said before, had he said “Jada, I love you, but you look like you just had Chemo.”

Now, that would be wrong. He said “Jada, I love ya, G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it."

There is no reference in the joke to any illness.

As for Will Smith, he took it wrong, and he then reacted wrong. There is zero excuse for what he has done, there is no excuse for violence over a joke in front of millions. How he made the connection, a slap vs a punch, IRRELEVANT. The only thing that matter is that he hit him.

There really is only a few points here that people need to remember

1 - Comcis are allowed to say what they wanted to say, especially when they are invited, hired, scripted and proof read to tell the jokes that they are hired to do. People might be offended by the joke, but the academy has already approved it beforehand. Chris Rock didn’t gatecrash on the evening and started hosting.


2 - The audience is not allowed to get up on the stage to assault the host or anyone. Whether it is the Janitor or Will Smith.
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Easy answer really. No censorship at all but you might get a slap one in a while. that's how being a cheeky **** works,it's a tightrope
 
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