Did anyone see how Will laughed at the joke?
Yes, as I said, " I thought was better loved and respected than he now seems to be." I didn’t properly allow for how much more money and influence the Smiths have. Perhaps also I allowed my personal fondness for Rock’s work to color my perception of his status. I said that fame and money let you get away with almost anything these days, but power and influence trumps all.
You said it well, Face-Intentionally
I used to love Will Smith. After this, no longer. Chris Rock was doing his job. He’s a comic! Will initially laughed at the joke but Jada hated it. Oh btw, she said hours before that she just has to laugh at her condition. I guess not!
Seconding that. The post Face_Intentionally put up about 20 minutes ago should be on the editorial pages of major newspapers–it’s both articulate and comprehensive.
I remain disturbed by those standing ovations. I hope they haunt those who offered them.
eta: fast-moving thread, so here’s a link to the post I’m referring to:
Chris Rock just did his first show tonight in Boston. Any reports yet what he said? I’m sure he addressed it.
Will Packer produced Girls Trip, in which Jada Pinkett Smith co-starred. But Will Packer didn’t tell Will Smith to slap Chris Rock, and Will Packer didn’t tell the Academy not to throw Smith out of the theater after they asked Smith to leave and he refused, so I’m not sure what point is being made upthread.
Well, I’m not sure I’d go quite that far. Chris Rock is rich. Will Smith and family are considerably richer. But at that level the difference between a few tens of millions and few hundreds of millions isn’t nothing, but it also isn’t huge. And Chris Rock is well-liked and also pretty connected. I don’t think it is a wash, but I also doubt it is THE driving factor. I think inertia around the bad behavior of celebrities in general probably plays as much of a role.
I think there is an attempt to say (without actually saying) something much more dire than that. What could we see from a photograph of the producer except their gender and their ethnicity. We are supposed to draw unspeakable conclusions from one or both of those characteristics. What conclusions would be unspeakable here?
Now I’ll be the one asking everyone to draw their own conclusions about what @Cartooniverse was trying to say without saying.
Modnote: please keep the political jabs out of the Café.
That he’s black? I’m honestly lost here. I’m in the middle of Russia.
Yup! Upsetting to say the least!
Orcenio, this has nothing to do with race. Both involved are black.
I agree
Chris Rock tonight:
OMG what are we going to be banned for? I am so confused. Is this a gotcha moment?
Don’t disagree. But it might not only be optics.
If I knew I only had to remove Will Smith and he would leave without further incident (which he allegedly said he would not leave when they asked him to). Sure, remove him. But in the moment, he’s probably got 10+ people with him and I’m not sure how they would react if he resisted and if they would then need to be escorted out. And how others not in his orbit would react to that scene. It’s reasonably possibly You’d probably have to stop the show for an indefinite amount of time and have dozens of security. Again, I just think that’s difficult to decide in the moment, and definitely hard to decide when it appeared resolved/calm 5mins later.
I think he should have been escorted out, but I can appreciate erring on not risking escalating a situation that appeared to be calmed down.
Hmm. Will Smith’s net worth (not counting Jada’s) is estimated at about $350 million, he is a founding partner of a major production company that has had major deals with Warner, Columbia, Apple, New Line, and many more. He has “111 million followers on Facebook, 6.18 million on Instagram and 9.85 million subscribers on YouTube … nearly six times more YouTube views than the most followed person on Instagram”
Chris Rock is no pauper. Net worth $60 million apparently. Not sure if his production company Chris Rock Enterprises still exists. His social media impact is not even a fly on the window of the Smiths. The dollars differential is large, the power differential however seems huge.
My post was strictly FYI. 
Just saying.
So Will Smith has more clout, ensuring that, outside the brotherhood of comedians, Chris Rock will still be apportioned some percentage of blame.
After Stephen Colbert laid into W at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the next year featured the comedy stylings of Rich Little. Based on that, next year’s Oscars will wow us with red carpet haute imperméable, since the jokes will be supplied by Gallagher.