Ok, So the internet blew up today because at last nights oscars actor Will Smith slapped host Chris Rock for making a joke about Will’s wife Jada. Essentially he made reference to her hair buzzcut short and made some reference to her making G.I. Jane 2 sequel made in referencing her short hair. Apparently Jada has started suffering with alopecia (hair loss) Although initially cut from the broad cast but later shown in multiple online videos, Will Smith started heckling “keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth” before storming on stage and slapping Chris Rock.
Now the joke was in its self poor taste if Chris Rock did indeed know about Jada’s condition. I myself didn’t know about it and I’m not sure how much of this was in the public domain was. But it was just that, a joke. In recent Oscar nights hosts like Ricky Gervais has taken multiple pot shots at so many people including Mel Gibson and his battle with alcoholism. At no point in these events did anyone jump the stage, hurl abuse. People just laughed it off even if they didn’t find it funny and the night moved on.
There are several issues with all of this and discussing them could open up a never ending conversation. The video’s show Will was indeed laughing along with the haircut joke at first. And I get it. I really do. My wife is disabled, and for anyone to make a joke about this would be traumatic to say the least. But the joke aimed at Jada was about a hair cut. Not that it had started falling out. Not that he knew about the condition and started to laugh at it. It was a joke about a hair cut. Now we could go on about freedom of speech and where this starts and ends, but who is in this council? Who gets to say where it starts and ends.
Comedy is an art form, and like other art forms in existence it is a matter of personal taste at the end of the day. All he had to do was smile, and Chris would have to move on with the show. Or take his wife and calmly leave the event. This would be so much worse and the fact he immediately leaped to violence really does smack in the face the way Smith preaches his do no harm, violence is not the answer.
Either way we now need to wait to see if the academy are now going to expel him. I say do it. If you mean what you say, if the preachy way you throw around moral codes, really they should have no alternative.