The slap heard around the world. The joke that caused it unaddressed… until now.
In case you’ve been living under a rock since late March, we have some news for you. Let’s summarise in nice, succinct fashion.
1. Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith at the Oscars.
2. Will Smith didn’t like this.
3. Will Smith got out of his seat, walked onstage, and slapped Rock across the face.
4. People initially thought it was a planned comedy bit.
5. It was not. In fact, there’s considerable history between the pair.
6. Will Smith went on to the win the award for Best Actor on the same evening.
7. He gave an awkward, emotional speech.
8. He has since been banned from attending the ceremony for 10 years.
9. Smith, career seemingly in disarray, recently released a video attempting to explain just about everything.
10. Chris Rock has been pretty silent and dignified throughout. Well, mostly.
We did it. We explained about five months worth of endless drama in 10 neat bullet points. Let’s all move on. But wait a second… Chris Rock is talking about it. Come back. Let’s unpack this.
According to TMZ, Rock was performing a show with Dave Chappelle in Liverpool on Friday night (4 September), when he finally directly addressed the specific ‘GI Jane’ joke in question.
“Did that shit hurt?” Rock said, referring to his altercation with Smith. “Goddamn right… the motherfucker hit me over a bullshit joke, the nicest joke I ever told!”
Offering his own two cents on the matter, Newsweek notes that Chappelle referred to Smith’s upbringing, wondering if that played a role on Oscar night.
“A lot of people forget who Will Smith is,” Chappelle said. “Then 10 minutes before he was about to get the biggest award, he acted like he was back in Philadelphia.
“Will did the impression of a perfect person for 30 years, and he ripped his mask off and showed us he was as ugly as the rest of us,” Chappelle continued.
“Whatever the consequences are… I hope he doesn’t put his mask back on again, and lets his real face breathe.”
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