I think it is fair to say today a lot of people around the world were shocked by the slapping saga happening live on TV during the Oscar ceremony. If Oscar wants itself to be trendy again, this Oscar incident certainly trended around all the social media platform. Having said that, was it a good trending or a bad trending, or we are now living in an age that as long as something trended, it is a good thing?
I am sure by this time millions of people have watched and rewatched the incident millions of times now. As shocking as it was, and as dumbfounded as I was when it happened, the question remains – is it necessary?
To be honest with you, right after it happened, I was waiting for Will Smith to go back on stage, wrapped his arms around Chris Rock, and both proclaimed it was a prank.
It did not happen.
Then it became whether Chris Rock’s joke warrant the treatment he received from Will Smith.
Chris Rock is a comedian, comedians push boundaries for laughs. Sometimes they make a fool of themselves and sometimes they make a fool of others. It has always been a touchy point on whether you making fun of others to get a laugh is ethical or not. Ricky Gervais constantly roasts others and so do Tina Fey et co. But what warrant Chris Rock a slap / punch in the face for today’s joke is worth looking into. I personally was not aware of Jada Pinkett Smith was suffering alopecia, an immune system triggered condition that leads to baldness on the body, like the scalp. I haven’t been following their news, apparently, but certainly for me this came to light today.
I do not know how close Chris Rock is with Will Smith, as it is also hard to keep up with Hollywood friendships and gossips. But if Chris Rock can make fun of it, that means he already knew about it, and knew that it is not a fashion statement that Jada Pinkett Smith made at the Oscar. She came clean and was open about it, so I would expect that it is known information at least in the A List Hollywood Circle.
This is not the first time Chris Rock made fun of the couple. In 2016 in his opening monologue for the same occasion, he made fun of them boycotting the ceremony when they were probably not being invited anyway. That was mean, but without contentious malice. It was factual, if he really knows they were not invited anyway because Will Smith did not get the nomination he was hoping for from his work on Concussion.
However, this time is different. It is one thing to joke about harmless facts, but another thing to joke about a sickness that the sufferer may or may not recover from. Is it ok for comedians to do so? Maybe some agree, but for me, you don’t joke about other people sickness; especially when Jada Pinkett Smith, as a Hollywood actress, was trying to take a positive spin on it to deal with the matter. When you built your laugh upon someone’s suffering, you not only trivialised the sickness, you trivialised the suffering that person is going through, when you do it in public space, you trivialise everything the patients and their families went through. You might get a laugh, but the apathy that was written all over it did not make it a good joke.
That’s for Chris Rock to ponder over, if he cares about it at all.
As for Will Smith, I admired that he wanted to protect and seek justice for his wife. But then, how immediately offended he was, we did not know. Jada Pinkett Smith was not impressed, we saw that. She was rolling her eyes and obviously annoyed, but Will was all laughing at that moment. What changed during the short time the camera was not targeting the couple was unknown. All we saw was him walking on to the stage and did a ‘slap and run’. The slap was audible and the audience was shocked. Then Will Smith insisted Chris Rock to leave his wife alone in his jokes (with much direct language of course). Chris Rock, seemingly looked shocked, but recovered.
For me, Will Smith showing Chris Rock the consequence of his jokes about his wife was a direct display of action and consequence. He might have shown his manly way of dealing with the situation, but then what I thought was, here we are, we have some hard working but now in privileged position actors at odds with a public display. It could have been long time coming, but does it required to be played out on the stage? That is my question.
I do not condone violence, so this display of discontent publicly on my TV was something that I was not expected. I kept thinking since then – is there a better way to deal with the situation? Would it be better to have a chat afterwards to sort out the matter? The truth is Will Smith by doing that, completely destroyed the hard work he gave to enjoy the win he had tonight. It will forever be ‘The night he won an Oscar and punch Chris Rock’ instead of ‘The night he won an Oscar that he deserved’. I don’t know about other people but I completely switched off whether he won or not after that incident, because I lost respect for both men.
However, the ultimate victim here will always be Jada Pinkett Smith – her sickness and her struggle with the sickness and eventual embrace of the sickness was completely trivialised by Chris Rock; and her husband was the Oscar winner who slap a presenter, leaving her to forever address the issue wherever she goes – she will be the person picking up the pieces, not Will Smith. I felt bad for her, but she and husband’s relationship is something she has to manage. After all I am just an audience who will forever remember this incidence when I was expecting to watch a harmless award show.
To Slap or Not To Slap? It is Still the Question.
