Chris Rock on Jan. 9, 2020, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)/Jada Pinkett Smith on March 27, 2022, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)/Will Smith on Nov. 30, 2022, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Chris Rock’s latest Netflix comedy special debuted on the streaming giant on March 4 and has been all the buzz. Rock finally addressed the infamous Oscar slap he received from Will Smith after Rock delivered a joke on stage about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her head being bald. The slap got Smith banned from the Oscars for 10 years and sparked a debate over Rock’s insensitivity to Pinkett Smith’s alopecia hair condition. But until now, the Oscar host, Rock, has remained pretty much silent on the incident.
Smith publicly apologized, and Pinkett Smith said she hoped her husband and Rock would reconcile.
But Rock bashed the Hollywood couple on his comedy special, especially lashing out at Pinkett Smith. Some viewers pushed back at Rock; others praised his stinging comments.
Torraine Walker was clear of Camp Rock.
“I need someone to explain to me how a woman sleeping with her son’s traumatized friend and humiliating her husband to the point he snaps isn’t offensive, but making jokes about that behavior is. Help me follow the logic, the math ain’t mathin’ to me,” he tweeted.
Walker, who hosts a show on YouTube, Walker is the founder and editor of Context Media Group and a writer, journalist, and social media influencer. He is the producer and director of the documentary “Five Years: Mike Brown & Ferguson Now” and the creator and host of “Wednesday Wisdom,” a news and information website.
Rock dedicated the last 10 minutes of his hour-long standup show to the Smiths and the Oscar scandal.
Rock criticized Smith and Pinkett Smith for publicizing the scandalous details of her affair with musician August Alsina, 21 years younger than her, and friends with her son, Jaden, The Cut reported. She publicly described the affair as an entanglement.
“I didn’t have any entanglements,” Rock said in his skit and seemed to suggest Smith took out his own anger at his wife for cheating on him by slapping Rock.
“Everybody in the world called him a bitch,” he said, referencing the public fallout from the 2020 interview in which Alsina confirmed he and Pinkett Smith had a relationship. “They called his wife a predator. And who does he hit? Me.”
Then Rock gave some background to what seems to be behind his feud with Pinkett Smith. He said she started it in 2016 when she, along with other Hollywood notables like Spike Lee and director Michael Moore, boycotted the Oscars over the lack of diversity in its nominations. Will Smith had been overlooked for his standout performance in the film “Concussion.”
Many celebrities publicly asked Rock to step down as Oscar host. For unknown reasons, Rock targeted Pinkett Smith instead of other boycotters. In his opening monologue that year, he joked, “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited!”
Back to the Netflix special, she went on to talk about Smith.
“Will Smith practices selective outrage,” he said. “Years ago, his wife said I should quit the Oscars ’cause her man didn’t get nominated for ‘Concussion.’ And then her husband fucking gives me a concussion.”
He pushed back at Pinkett Smith, criticizing his decision to host in 2016 by saying, “She starts it, I finish it. Nobody’s picking on this bitch.”
Chris Rock poses at the the FX portion of theTelevision Critics Association Winter press tour on Jan. 9, 2020, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)/Jada Pinkett Smith arrive at the Oscars on March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)/Will Smith arrives at the premiere of “Emancipation” on Nov. 30, 2022, at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
