We do have a conflicted relationship with violence.
Yup. Plenty of people think it’s okay, even a moral duty, for a man to smack somone for insulting his wife.
Perhaps this has been discussed, but is there a screen with video shown at the ceremony? My feeling was the Smith’s face was caught by camera laughing at Rock’s joke, and he saw this on the screen. He then was immediately embarrassed for laughing at his wife, and decided to fix it by going on stage. His facial expressions during the entire event were a bit off, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was under the influence. He even smiled right after the smack ion his way back to his seat.
Miller would have researched and picked some obscure foreign film with a bald woman lead so he could smirk at how clever he was to make a connection. Rock picked a movie title where, even if you had no idea it existed, you’d still make a “GI Jane, like a female soldier, bald…” connection. And no, it wasn’t some weird praise like some people suggest about her being fierce or akin to 90s Demi Moore, it was just “haha, no hair”.
It was a dumb joke and an insensitive joke but it’s not hard to figure out the construction of the joke.
Chris Rock will play the leading role in the Will Smith biopic.
At least in most circles I run, I find most people are very averse to confrontation. Which is somewhat understandable given that confrontation is unpleasant and most of us just want to get along with others. But people get away with all sorts of bullshit because others aren’t willing to call them out on it. And I’ll have to include myself as one of those people who is averse to confrontation. But because others in the area didn’t understand why I was upset, I just looked like a difficult customer to them. A Karen if you will though this was long before we had Karens.
My intention was to make him both uncomfortable and for him to understand why I was unhappy with the situation. Basically I decided the relationship could not be salvaged as I would not purchase an automobile from these people no matter what. As I had no intention of hitting him, it didn’t occur to me that he might strike me. And if he just laughed in my face?
I did end up speaking very briefly to the floor manager. As for the rest, isn’t that what I did? He understood why I was angry.
Yeah, the cringey part was where Rock’s response was essentially “oh come on, it’s a joke about a bald lady because she’s bald. Get it? Jada is bald, or to phrase it a different way, hairless as a Mexican chihuahua. C’mon y’all. Bald chicks are funny.”
Doesn’t excuse Smith in the slightest, but Rock didn’t cover himself in glory either. That’s a low blow even by his standards.
Be great if accepts as a settlement a role in a film where his character gets to beat the piss out of Smith’s character
Of course it wouldn’t matter whether or not it was that, but FWIW I am not alone in not hearing like that at all.
Let’s even assume that Mr Rock follows the Ms Smith’s news feeds and knew of her journey to embracing alopecia, sure he might have already known.
Then he knows that when speaking about she has indeed decided to boldly embrace it, display it, to declare to the world that a bald head is beautiful. She is not hiding it. She has no need to. She rocks the look and many other women can too. She had with intention made her bald head part of her branding.
A GI Jane joke may have been dated, may not have been funny, but it was a soft ball set up for her declared narrative: yup bald power baby!
I am not sure what a lawsuit would accomplish. I doubt Rock was seriously injured. And I doubt being slapped by Smith is going to cause any damage to his career causing him to lose any income.
Of course it could force Smith to admit wrongdoing if THAT is an issue for Rock.
Observing his professional demeanor for 30 years, I would guess the entirety of Chris Rock’s response to this whole thing is a shrug and “Whatever.”
I feel like, if that was his intent, it would have been much more clear. “Excited to see a sequel to GI Jane, because you are rockin’ that look! Demi Moore, watch out!”, etc.
As an aside, I heard a (non-Oscars related) reference to Natalie Portman’s shaved head this morning and it took me a good several minutes to remember what movie that was (V for Vendetta) whereas I immediately understood GI Jane. So, dated reference or not, I think it worked. Worked in service of a bad joke but at least I understood the joke in the moment.
It was a contumelious physical public attack that will haunt Chris for the rest of his life. Smith needs to pay for that. He needs to take an equal but not physical hit.
It is presumptuous to say this incident will “haunt” Rock for the rest of his life. And I say this as someone in my mid 40s who has suffered PTSD my entire adult life.
If Rock does feel that way though he should pursue legal action.
I saw THX-1138 a while ago.
Maybe maybe not.
Either way though for someone who is selling the bold embrace of her baldness as beauty, as a branding statement, it could and should have been received as a gift to that branding message.
A shout out in the moment of “bald is beautiful!” would not only served her brand but done a major service to others with alopecia less privileged than she is and with more severe forms than she has.
I had some other stuff typed up but saw your post and wanted to respond, because I also thought this was a softball designed to highlight her boldly owning her hair issue - but it seems he tragically misread the degree that she was ‘owning’ it. Joking about things acknowledges them, normalizes them, and takes away their power. Joking about her hair loss should help take away the sting and stigma, if she’s open to it. When employed without malice, humor is our shield against the world.
Now back to my other, rambling post, already in progress.
If Jada hadn’t pouted and Will didn’t have to, “slap a bitch”, we wouldn’t be talking about Rock’s joke. At all. Things like this get said all the time at awards shows, or anywhere you get a comedian or two with a crowd to work. Normally, life goes on because violence isn’t committed. Hollywood elite that they are, they knew what to expect. What jokes did Ricky Gervais tell at the Golden Globes that, if he had been punched, would have the internet clutching their collective pearls and saying he went too far? Likely a significant portion of them.
Rock did not point-and-laugh-at-the-bald-lady. He compared her short hair to the main character in a fairly famous, if older, movie. People say it was a lame joke, but that’s only because it WAS a lame joke - more a reference than anything. It’s the sort of lame joke that’s in every good comedic performance, but we forget because it’s bracketed by other, stronger jokes. Not every joke is a winner, even though we tend to forget the, well, forgettable ones.
I’m just about tired of all the, “Ohmygod, she has an autoimmune disorder!!” Yeah, she has an autoimmune disorder. She has the Bud Lite of autoimmune disorders. The near-beer of autoimmune disorders. I don’t have it, but from what I’ve read, its only known effect (thankfully) is to make hair fall out. Which, admittedly, kinda sucks, but doesn’t justify punching people because they conversationally bumped up against your sore spot. We shouldn’t have to act like she’s some fragile, tragic figure in a Dickens novel. She’s known about this since 2018, it’s been public since at least July 2021 that I know of. At some point, she has to accept, normalize, and just own it, instead of this years-long snit over bad hair. I thought that’s what she was doing by announcing it and going with the buzz cut, but I guess not.
Joking about stuff is an important step in the process of taking away the stigma and power things hold over us. Always has been. We laugh at everything. We laugh in the face of danger and death, but not an asshole disease that gives you unending bad-hair-days? When Reagan was shot, he joked with his wife, “I forgot to duck.” I think the Smiths take themselves entirely too seriously, and they have a bunch of problems that Scientology keeps them from getting help for. I couldn’t even watch the whole acceptance speech Will gave, it was so full of delusions of grandeur and self-importance.
If the Smiths weren’t wound so tight, we’d be using this time to talk about the Ukraine situation instead of this silly stuff. I suspect that if it weren’t this, something else would have set Will off before long. They have issues, to put it mildly, but fame and money can keep reality at bay quite awhile these days.
This.
To be blunt she has the near beer of Bud Lite. How many hairless spots did you see? I saw none. Alopecia is not short hair. Alopecia is completely hairless, ranging from patches like I had early on (alopecia areata) to complete lack of hair all over the body like my wife’s uncle has (alopecia universalis). It is not exotic or rare and it is not a horrible thing.
As a man my shaving my head was an easy thing and bald jokes are just part of my identity. My wife’s uncle wore a wig for years before embracing it. He tolerated the occasional Curly jibes with jokes in turn.
I get that a woman is in a different position and I have been made to understand that Black hair in a White dominated culture has baggage beyond that. And she has been a model so the tiniest blemish is a crisis.
But dang whatever alopecia she has is small enough patches that I cannot appreciate it at all. Many have it MUCH more than that.
Ms Smith you look better with the buzzed look than in other pictures I can find of you with longer cuts. If you endeavor to inspire others to accept that as beautiful, which it is, accept it as such yourself. It is not a horrible disfigurement.
And again even true “fighting words” would not excuse Mr Smith’s actions. His apology is weak sauce at best.
I haven’t read it either way but hadJada said it’s autoimmune related ? Could be traction alopecia that causes hair loss from wearing tight hairstyles aka braids and extensions.
People with alopecia areata have it rough from the get go losing all their body hair.