Rock claims he didn’t know she had a medical condition. I didn’t and I assume most viewers didn’t. Did you?
I didn’t know that she had alopecia, didn’t know that she had short hair, didn’t know that Chris Rock was hosting the Oscars, didn’t know that Will Smith was nominated for an Oscar… There are a great number of things surrounding the incident that I didn’t know. But I’m not in the industry, standing in front of the crowd and being paid to tell jokes about them.
So no context? Right? (and for the record, Rock was not hosting although he has hosted in the past.) And while we’re on the subject of Bruce Willis, I suspect his lack of hair has been noted from the stage more than once at an awards show without controversy.
Maybe just not mock anyone’s physical apperance at all?
I mean, that’s definitely a kind of joke. Possibly not your kind of humor, but that’s a pretty common form of observational humor.
That’s a great rule for day to day interpersonal relations, but this is an awards show where comedians are expected to adhere to the theme of the night; the larger than life “beautiful people” being honored. For over fifty years this has involved poking fun at those people by noting the absurdity of their elevated status. Physical appearance is low hanging fruit, but what do you expect of an event that is prefaced with those people posing on a red carpet?
And as it has been pointed out, there’s no sign if it. What JPS did was cut her hair short which is not uncommon among older women. It takes all the hassle out of maintaining a hair style. She certainly didn’t look like a bedraggled medical survivor. It looked good on her.
It would be like Rock telling Jamie Lee Curtis he looks forward to her next movie in Gray Lady Down 2 (OK, I know it was a submarine movie, work with me). It’s a spin on her fashion statement. She looks good with short gray hair.
Yeah, you put yourself up to be celebrated and applauded, be willing to take a little bit of ribbing.
I find that though I welcome a kinder, gentler social environment, I do not aspire to a general nerfing of the universe and most certainly do not want it achieved by the threat of direct individual retaliation. If you break a social standard let it be social censure that settles the score. Not fear of being physically injured.
They are both gorgeous and bald.
I’ve known more than one black woman of various ages who kept their hair as short as Jada’s. Never crossed my mind that any of them experienced alopecia.
I’ve never been very aware of her, other than that she was in some hard rock band, was quite fit, and wore her hair short.
Now Molly Tuttle - THERE’S a beautiful and talented woman with alopecia!
FWIW
This is what we typically see with alopecia areata.
This is what Ms Smith has labeled as her alopecia. Click the video link. You can see the thin bald line on the top of head. Unclear if it is still there or resolved (alopecia is not scarring).
Yes there are reported cases of linear alopecia areata, rare but exist, but most people I have known with alopecia would be thrilled to have that thin line. Most have large smooth round patches.
So areas of disagreement here:
Did Mr Rock know she shaved her head in response to that thin line? Did he have an obligation to research for possible medical conditions before making jokes about hair styles? Some here think he knew or should have known.
Was the joke out of bounds for the sort of joke that is expected at the Oscars, jokes that if they hit the mark deflate the self-importance of the very rich and powerful while still celebrating them and the industrial complex that creates them and makes them so very rich and powerful? Some here think this was not even close to the line, some somehow read it as far across it.
But agreed I hope-
Mr Rock demonstrated grace and professionalism after being sucker slapped on live television.
No matter how far across the line it was, if it was me there and he called me a short bald pudgy kike, if it was a homophobic rant, storming the stage and slapping him would be inexcusable. It isn’t a bar or a third grade playground. The crowd’s disapproval and public reaction afterwards would be the appropriate outcome.
Those who think that Mr Rock’s joke was mean and/or misogynistic, and who think that Ms Smith has a horrific disability that he surely knew about, hopefully still can agree that a performer being an ass on stage is orders of magnitude less awful than physically attacking someone.
I remember Sinead OConner (speaking of bald as a choice) ripping a picture of the pope on live TV. Offensive to many and I am sure someone in the audience was horribly upset. Would anyone defend an audience member rushing the stage and hitting her?
Was violence against Charlie Hebdo excused because they made fun of the prophet of a faith and hurt some feelings?
Saying both were wrong, both asses, is off by orders of magnitude.
I think he made a slightly mean joke about her hairstyle, nothing more.
I hate the way this joke is being reframed as “totally humiliated her over a medical condition”. I could play this game all day long.
At a large press event, comedian Michelle Wolfe made a joke about the recent marriage of Joe Scarborough to his long time co-host Mika Brzenenski, saying “Sometimes a #MeToo works out”.
Did Joe get up and start screaming……how dare you accuse me of sexually harassing and raping my wife? And how dare you accuse her of having Stockholm Syndrome, of falling in love with the man that brutalized her?”
If Smith was justified in slapping Chris Rock, then I guess Scarborough would’ve been justified in giving Wolfe a closed fist punch and kicking her in the mouth, because this joke was way worse than the joke Rock made. Right?
Or let’s take the oldest joke in the book, the one where some guy asks a nun “What’s a blowjob? and the nun replies “20 bucks, same as in town”.
Where’s the outrage? This joke accuses dedicated women of the cloth, brides of Christ, of taking off her their clothes and letting random men stick their filthy penises in their mouths for money, repeatedly, day in and day out. Can you think of anything more insulting to the church or to the very concept of faith? I guess the only question is whether someone that told such a horrid, blasphemous joke should be merely excommunicated or executed.
I’ll admit it, I like humor and I hate fake or exaggerated outrage. And humor is often inappropriate. I think humor is very interesting, neurologically speaking. Our brains make an offbeat or unusual connection and instead of making us feel uneasy, we are rewarded with a pleasurable sensation, sometimes one as extreme as uncontrollable laughter.
The point being, finding humor in things that are, objectively speaking, really not funny at all, is what our brains do. We shouldn’t feel shame over it. We should accept that a joke about 9/11 can be funny even though the murder of 3000 people and the destruction and terror isn’t funny at all. It’s how our brains work.
I interpreted his joke differently.
In the context of everything he said, I read it as he was poking fun at Jada’s acting ability, essentially saying she could never win an Oscar. Even moreso now, since what role is she going to play with that hair? GI Jane 2? Nobody’s winning any acting Oscars from that. (Maybe someone could win for makeup or special effects.)
Switching to the Wakanda joke wouldn’t work because you can win an acting Oscar in a Black Panther movie.
Jada is not a good enough actor to get a part in a movie where someone could win an Oscar for acting, is how I read his overall comments toward Jada.
That was my first impression. I was unaware of his previous jokes about Jada, where he poked fun at her boycott of the Oscars by saying she wasn’t invited. Now that I am it only reinforces my interpretation.
Well, he didn’t shoot up into the stratosphere as a result of jumping on stage at the VMAs. He actually ended up cloistering himself, and stepping away from music for a while, afterwards as everyone roasted him. Then when he did start working on music, he did it in a manic almost 24/7 way and released one of the greatest albums of all time…
So… if Will Smith releases one of the greatest films in history, I’m sure he’ll weather the storm. But I doubt he will. And it’ll probably hurt his career at least a bit.
This was such a quick and lame joke, I do love how much analysis has now gone into it. It was a “she looks like Demi Moore when she shaved her head” joke.
Is anyone here saying Smith’s slap was appropriate?
Anyways, I should note the audience did indeed boo, quite loudly, at that joke.
I don’t think so.
The joke is literally that she looks like GI Jane with her head shaved. There are zero layers to it.
The other day I walked into a store wearing my motorcycle armor and my boots were making this squeaky noise. The guy addressed me as “Robocop”. It was pretty funny, everyone chuckled. It’s the same joke.
The most surprising thing about the whole affair is finding out that Rock is the comedian’s actual surname. I always assumed it was a stage name.
Yes. Up until Will Smith got onto the stage, Chris Rock was being seen as the biggest jerk of the night, and he might have suffered some career consequences. Will’s slap must have seemed like a godsend to Rock.