Man, that is one hell of a reading-things-in way of looking at it.
They didn’t.
This, 100%.
Exactamundo
Indeed
Precisely
Okay, at least that’s not crazy. If that’s what you all see, fair enough.
I see it clear as day that it’s one single coherent bit. Chris Rock is not a comedian that jumps disjointedly from one line of thought directly to another like a Steven Wright. Not that he’s full narrative like Dave Chappelle, but the timing and structure of those three or four sentences were, to me, clearly and obviously a single thought.
Then again, the interpretation you guys have is perfectly consistent with Chris’s defense at the time: “It was a GI Jane joke!” My interpretation paints that protestation as disingenuous sniveling.
Yes, to me it was clearly a prepared bit, not off the cuff at all. But I see no malice in it. Certainly no more malice than his ‘Jada’s boycotting the Oscars? She wasn’t invited!’ joke. In fact, I’m saying he was just repeating the same joke.
If it really was just a bald reference with no other context whatsoever, why wouldn’t he have picked a black bald woman character instead of white? As people in the thread have mentioned, Wakanda references certainly would be timelier. Why do you guys think he didn’t use that reference, but instead used a 25-year-old white woman reference? Just lazy or a hack or something?
Again, the interpretation quoted above from JRDelirious doesn’t strike me as insane at all. I totally see that. It’s just not my read at all.
It occurs to me that you guys could be completely right, and that what I’m seeing from the joke is what Will Smith saw.
If so, not a great sign for me.
“Get my wife’s name out your MF’ing mouth”
That’s such a weird turn of phrase.
Or was it more of a cry for help? Get your [bleeps] out my wife’s MF’ing mouth?
Nah, ‘keep my name out of your mouth’ is part of the vernacular. I am familiar with it from raconteurs as cornerback Richard Sherman and Kyle Mooney’s SNL Baby Yoda character.
OK. I’ve heard “don’t be talking 'bout my wife!”. But not keep it out of your mouth. That’s what I say to my 4 year old.
My guess would be that GI Jane doesn’t require anything from the listener. If I was 100% ignorant of the movie, I would still immediately make the military = bald connection just based on knowing the idea of GI Joe. There’s other benefits of the listener does know the movie but it’s an easy softball reference for a fairly light joke.
If I’m unfamiliar with the MCU movies, “Wakanda forever” will just result in a blank stare. Living in the Chicago area, I’d wonder why you’re referring to a northern suburb of the city. For people who DO know, there’s the fact that they ARE making a Black Panther sequel as we speak so it just sounds as though maybe she’s involved somehow.
Out of the two, GI Jane makes a lot more sense to me
Which could go a long way to explaining the over the top reaction. Per what has been explained by others here and elsewhere, I can see how since the public conversation surrounding Jada has not been generally positive for years, they would be on the edge over that. So sure, Will and Jada were primed to hear “Javier’s wife is celebrated as an accomplished artist in her own right, but yours is a fuckin’ punchline”.
Yeah I don’t think of Mr Rock as a good enough actor to pull that off.
And reports have consistently been that the joke was ad libbed, not part of the prewritten set. To me it was very clearly a joke that referenced Mr Smith (hoping he wins) seguing moving to their table and riffing on what he saw there, what most of us saw there - a bold fashion choice that was an ask for attention. And giving it to her. “A nice one”
No more.
Could Ms Smith’s interpretation have been otherwise? Sure. Makes more sense than alopecia sensitivity when her clear stated intent with the buzz is to embrace bald boldly.
My understanding is that most jokes on the fly fail. Most sets are honed having tried out lots of jokes finding the few that work. You hit the mark with one of three ad libbed ones and you are doing good.
It was at best a weak laugh joke that from Mr Rock’s perspective may have been holding back the meaner material … someone had already hit them below the belt, just throw a lame neutral one at them and move on.
His incredulity at the reaction was real.
“Wakanda Forever” does not instantly bring to mind “woman with shaved head.” Hearing that the first thing I think of is Chadwick Boseman, so I would have had no idea why he was saying it. The only thing GI Jane is remembered for is the scene of Demi Moore shaving her head. Yes, it was a lazy joke that he thought of right then in the moment.
As “keep my name outta your mouth,” that’s a common enough phrase that there’s even a song with that title (by the Black Keys) and there’s plenty of pre-Academy Awards memes if you Google image search the phrase. It even appears as “get her name out of your mouth” in a 2013 Brooklyn 99 episode from what quick searching I could find. It’s an established phrase – Will didn’t come up with it extemporaneously, and I don’t find that turn of phrase odd in the least (perhaps because I’m already familiar with it.)
OK I see
Chris Rock is pushing 60. I think he used that reference because he was ad libing, and forgot that the movie came out almost thirty years ago. If it were something he’d written ahead of time, he probably would have used a less dated reference.
Isn’t that the meat of the whole thing though? Short/shaved hair is far from uncommon these days; had I not read about the alopecia as part of the news coverage, I’d have just assumed it was a personal choice on Pinkett-Smith’s part. It looks good on her, IMO.
Had I been watching the Oscars, I’d have assumed personal choice because I was unaware of the alopecia and assumed that Rock’s joke was innocent, and been really perplexed about Smith’s reaction.
I suspect there was more going on there; maybe Pinkett-Smith is extremely sensitive about it. Maybe Smith is sensitive about it. Maybe there’s something between them about it that makes them both sensitive about it. Maybe Chris Rock explicitly knows about the alopecia. I don’t know.
I do know that either Jada or Will could have made Rock totally look like the bad guy and an asshole by just taking the high road in the post-Oscar interviews. All he’d have had to say is something about how sad it is that he had to pick on a woman with an auto-immune disorder, and how it’s not appreciated, etc… He’d have extracted an apology from Rock, and Rock would have looked like a bully.
Instead, now Smith looks like something of a lunatic, or like he can’t control himself, and Rock looks like more of a victim than anything else.
No kidding! I don’t think I’ve ever seem an off the cuff two sentence bit so overanalyzed. This is like the ultimate example of trying to explain a joke to somebody.
Even saying it with the crossed forearms as someone suggested above, I wouldn’t have gotten it. And I’ve seen all the Marvel movies. A lot of things pop into my mind if you mention Wakanda, but bald women are way down the list.
As for misogyny, just no. Comparing a fit, good looking 50 year old woman who voluntarily shaved her head to a fit, good looking (then) 35 year old woman who voluntarily shaved her head is not misogyny.
Smith’s resignation is a big nothing. He can’t vote for Oscars? What a harsh punishment. I would add something about boycotting his movies, but a quick look at IMDB shows that I have been boycotting everything he made after Independence Day. I must have known this day was coming.
Since all I know about the Smiths comes from this thread, am I correct that the open marriage has only applied to Jada having a fling so far? I haven’t seen anything mentioned about Will sleeping around.
Saturday’s SNL pretty much went all in on the lunatic angle.