There are few award show moments as jaw-dropping as actor Will Smith storming the 2022 Oscars stage to slap comedian Chris Rock, after a comment about his wife went sour.
Now, Rock has spoken out about the incident, in the form of a swearing-rich take down of the actor and his wife, in his new Netflix special Selective Outrage.
He began the special with a little comedic jab about the incident itself.
“I’m gonna try to do a show tonight without offending,” Rock said. “You never know who might get triggered.”
He continued, “You know, don’t people say words hurt? Anybody that says words hurt has never been punched in the face.”
What Happened At The 2022 Oscars?
For those who don’t remember the incident, here’s a quick recap. While hosting the 2022 Oscars, Rock made a jibe about Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith having a shaved head.
“Jada, I love you, G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it!” he said, referencing the 1997 Demi Moore film where she rocked a shaved head. Given Pinkett Smith’s buzzcut was due to her struggle with alopecia, the comment hit a nerve. Will Smith started to yell at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f—ing mouth”, before rushing up to the stage and slapping Rock across the face.
Smith has apologized for the incident, resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and has a 10-year ban from the show.
In Rock’s new Netflix special, he explained that the slap was a culmination of drama between himself and Smith that has been brewing for years.
How The 2016 Oscars Led To The 2022 Oscars Slap
In 2016, the Academy Awards were at the centre of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, after a predominantly all-white nominee list was announced. Will Smith was one of the actors who missed out on an Academy Award nomination for his role in Concussion, and it was the same year Rock was due to host the awards.
Jada Pinkett Smith took to Facebook to encourage a boycott of the ceremony. She posted a video about the nominations saying, “Begging for acknowledgement, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power,” she said. “So, let’s let the Academy do them, with all grace and love. And let’s do us, differently.
“Hey Chris, I will not be at the Academy Awards, and I will not be watching, but I can’t think of a better man to do the job at hand this year than you, my friend.”
In response, Rock made jokes about Jada’s approach to the Academy Awards. “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited,” he said during the show, referring to the fact that she’d been working in TV, not film.
“Jada’s mad her man Will was not nominated for Concussion. I get it…You get mad. It’s not fair that Will was this good and didn’t get nominated. You’re right,” he said. “It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for Wild Wild West.”
In Selective Outrage, Rock alleges that Pinkett Smith asked him not to host the show.
He said, “She f–king said [I] should quit because Will didn’t get nominated for Concussion. What the f–k? So, then I do some jokes about it. Who gives a f–k? That’s how it is. She started it. I finished it. Nobody’s picking on this b—h. She started this s–t. Nobody was picking on her.”
“She said to me, a grown-a– man, should quit his job because her husband didn’t get nominated for Concussion, and then this [man] gives me a f–king concussion, OK? What the f–k, man!”
Rock Alleges The Smith’s Relationship Troubles Played A Part In The Slap
Rock’s Netflix special was titled Selective Outrage and the name directly correlates to Smith and the slap.
“Will Smith practices selective outrage,” Rock said. “Everybody who really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that s—t. I didn’t have any ‘entanglements’.”
‘Entanglements’ is a reference to the word Jada used to describe her relationship with August Alsina after the failure of her marriage to Will Smith.
Jada was allegedly introduced to Alsina through her son, Jaden, and fell into a four year relationship with him, which she discussed face-to-face with Will Smith on an episode of her show Red Table Talk.
While the timeline is hazy, when the relationship with Alsina ended she rekindled things with Will and they now share an open relationship, which Smith confirmed to GQ.
“For the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose,” Smith said. “We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison. And I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody. But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”
It’s all a little murky, but that didn’t stop Rock from sharing his description of events, which was a lot less ‘amicable’.
“For people that don’t know, well everybody knows, but Will Smith’s wife was f***ing her son’s friend. Okay? I normally would not talk about this s**t, but for some reason they put it on the internet. I have no idea why two talented people would do something like that,” he said in the special.
“We’ve all been cheated on, everyone in here has been cheated on. None of us have ever been interviewed by the person who cheated on us on television. None of us are like, hey, I was sucking somebody else’s d–k. How did that make you feel? Why would you do that?
“She hurt him way more than he hurt me. Everybody in the world was calling him a b—h, and I tried to call him up and he didn’t pick up the phone to me Everybody was calling him a b—h, everybody, everybody, and he slaps me? That is some bit-h, a—sh-t.”
Rock appeared proud of how he handled that slap though.
“A lot of people are like, did it hurt? It still hurts! I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears. But I’m not a victim, baby. You will never see me on Oprah, it’s not gonna happen. No, I took that hit like [boxer Manny] Pacquiao,” he said.
“Will Smith is significantly bigger than me. We are not the same size. Will Smith does movies with his shirt off. You’ve never seen me do a movie with my shirt off. Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie. You think I auditioned for that part? I played Pookie in New Jack City.”
It’s clear that Rock did not approach his Netflix special with any intention to mince his words. The comedian came out hitting, and spilt the tea.
The internet cannot get enough of it.
“The gloves finally came off,” one tweeted, while another added, “Chris Rock is not holding back about Will Smith and Jada. This is just too much.”
So far neither Will nor Jada have commented on the special. Although, Will Smith did post a tribute to Jamie Foxx around the time the special went live, writing, “@iamjamiefoxx is a BEAST!!! Singer, Actor, Comedian — THE TRUTH!”
Could it be a word-based jab this time, who knows? But it seems this drama is only escalating. All we can think is with the 95th Academy Awards coming up on March 12, we don’t want to see history repeat itself.
