At this point, we’ve heard just about every single take on the Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars incident.
It seems like the most common consensus is that it was obviously wrong for him to physically assault Chris like that, especially because it sounds like Chris didn’t even know about Jada Pinkett’s hair loss struggle when he made the comments about her playing G.I. Jane in the next film (because G.I. Jane is bald), which is what got Will so riled up to begin with.
Here’s the video if you haven’t seen it 1,000 times already:
And now, we have Joe Rogan weighing in on the matter… and he’s taking a pretty hardline stance.
He had guest Josh Barnett, a mixed martial artist, professional wrestler and color commentator, on today’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, and it was pretty interesting hearing the two of them discuss the different nuances and details of the whole story.
Joe made a point several times to emphasize just how mild the joke was in all actuality, saying that in and of itself should’ve been the end of it, and that there was no need for anyone to be so upset and get physical:
“Chris Rock said one of the most mild jokes ever… Jada Pinkett is bald, apparently, I didn’t know this, I found out after the fact, that she didn’t shave her head voluntarily. She shaved her head because she’s suffering from alopecia.
So I don’t know if Chris knew this, but Chris says a joke around G.I. Jane II, looking forward to it, very mild. Just laughed, and even said, ‘Come on, that was nice!’
Of course, we all saw the video where Will initially laughs at the comment, but then realizes Jada was upset by it, and proceeds to march on stage, smack Chris, and tell him to,
“Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth.”
Which he repeated again from his seat loud and clear.
Joe noted that the entire situation was bizarre, especially how odd it was that Will felt so comfortable doing something like that in such a setting:
“First of all, that whole scene, doing that in that manner, in that place, is a great example of what’s wrong with the glorification of just being able to go up to someone and smack them in the face. ‘Cuz that whole thing was so weird.”
Josh disagreed with parts of Joe’s analysis, saying he didn’t think that any of the violence we witnessed on live TV was glorified.
Joe argued that Will acted purely out of emotion, knowing in the back of his mind that there were likely no consequences for whatever he did. And so far, he’s right about that.
Chris declined to press formal charges, and while the Academy has opened some kind of internal investigation, it’s not likely much will come from any of this.
Joe elaborated, saying the whole ordeal could set a bad precedent for similar events going forward, using a rather unique, but accurate analogy to compare Will’s actions to ruining family dinner:
“And then sit there quivering, saying ‘Keep my wife’s name out of your fuckin’ mouth’, and everybody’s just gotta sit there in the shit that you just took on the table.
You just pulled your pants down and took a shit on the dinner table, and they all have to just sit there and look at that. That’s what it’s like. The whole idea behind it is completely irrational.
But what I’m saying is like, these people live in this fake world of, you know, you’re protected by guards, you’re driven by limos, you’re on the red carpet, like all of it is crazy life.
And he’s so God damn famous, and so removed from regular discourse and interaction with regular people, that he, for whatever reason in his head, acted like he’s a character in a movie.”
Joe also noted that he believed Will shouldn’t have been allowed to go about business as usual, and that he should’ve been taken out of the show altogether after slapping Chris:
“You can’t just go smack a man in the face in front of the world, and then go about business as usual. First of all, it sets a terrible precedent in so many different ways.
It sets terrible precedent for comedy clubs, like are people gonna decide that they’re gonna go on stage and smack the comedian, you know? I don’t necessarily think people are gonna change their behavior, but dumb people might.”
I think we can all agree it was a total meltdown, and there’s probably a lot more to the emotion that Will felt, aside from just the joke making Jada uncomfortable.
Will and Jada have been extremely open and public about their infidelity issues and open marriage over the years, which clearly, is probably not the best way to go about handling things:
“It was a meltdown. I think what we’re looking at also is the culmination of a long period of, like, emotional distress.
Like that family has been public about all their issues, and you know, there’s a conversation that they had to have, the two of them together, about infidelity, open relationships. And they were openly mocked because of that.
But I think there’s a certain defensiveness that goes along with that, when you’ve been out in the public getting mocked. This is a nonsense scene, where your just allowed to go smack someone.”
Check out their whole conversation on the topic, it’s definitely one of the more interesting ones I’ve heard on the matter thus far:
