Everyone’s still talking about the onstage Oscar smack that Will Smith delivered to Chris Rock. Granted, the joke that Rock told was not a good one, given that “GI Jane” produced an eye roll from Jada PInkett, who struggles with alopecia. Still, Smith (who has since publicly apologized to Rock) took his reaction into the physical realm while Rock (miraculously) kept things together and carried on with the show. (In case you want to relive the immediate aftermath, here’s an uncensored clip of Rock’s followup.)
The fallout’s still a mess, and even Alec Baldwin has weighed in, likening the Oscars to The Jerry Springer Show. Academy member (and The View moderator) Whoopi Goldberg spoke about The Smack, saying that she doubted that the Academy would take away Will’s Oscar, but that Will had “snapped.” In a followup episode, The View discussed Rock’s history and how he’d previously spoken about a physical altercation in his youth, when he reacted with violence after being bullied. As Rock put it then, he was scared to ever grow angry as an adult, because “the guy you saw was bending over backwards to be nice because I was so scared of my anger.”
In light of that quote, Whoopi wants to know why anyone would be surprised that people are surprised that Rock kept it together on stage. “Why you think he would have indulged in a brawl (on a stage) in front of 3 billion people,” Whoopi asked. “Why wouldn’t he be the adult?” That remark happens around the 1:00 mark below.
CHRIS ROCK ON BEING BULLIED AS A CHILD: Two months before Will Smith struck him at the #Oscars, Chris Rock recounted on a podcast how a violent incident from childhood impacted him as an adult – #TheView co-hosts and guest co-host @TaraSetmayer discuss. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/YtLxI70rW5
— The View (@TheView) March 30, 2022
Whoopi continued, stressing that no one should draw any conclusions, either, from the fact that this happened to be an incident between two Black artists. Instead, she sees this as an issue with Will Smith’s actions as an individual, not as part of a community:
“There’s nothing wrong with what [Rock] did, so there’s no reason for anybody to have any issue with Black people! You have an issue with Will Smith, and what he did. He doesn’t represent every Black person on the planet. Stop doing that! And assume that the right thing was done because the man knows how to act in public! Chris Rock!”
Meanwhile, Rock has refrained from public comment, although Rock’s brother has accused Diddy of lying while claiming that Smith and Rock had supposedly settled the beef after the ceremony as “brothers.” However, Rock will hit the stand-up stage in Boston on Wednesday night, so stay tuned.