Will Smith vs. Chris Rock: Why It Matters

Slade Hale |

Mar 28, 2022

The Oscars have been dying on the vine for some time now, with each new annual event yielding less viewers and worse critiques than the year before. Nobody expected much going into last night’s Oscars show, but that didn’t prevent one particular set of sparks from flying on set between actors Will Smith and Chris Rock.

In a night permeated by the predictable rabble of Left-wingers patting each other on the back for playing pretend, while taking political pot shots at Florida over a bill none of them bothered to actually read, one event ended up making headlines. It all started when Chris Rock made a crack about Jada Pinkett-Smith starring in the next G.I. Jane movie, due to her hair loss.

Smith came out a few years ago and opened up about her condition on the Facebook show Red Table Talk, where she explained why she had been wearing turbans more often. At the time, the 46-year old star confirmed that she was struggling with clumps of hair falling out in the shower. The realization forced her to adopt shorter cuts moving forward.

The actress added, “My hair has been a big part of me. Taking care of my hair has been a beautiful ritual, and having the choice to have hair or not. And then one day to be like, ‘Oh my god, I might not have that choice anymore.'” She was later diagnosed with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that surrounds and attacks hair follicles.

Needless to say, Rock’s joke didn’t go over too well, with Jada looking visibly embarrassed on national television. At first, Will Smith laughed along, perhaps in shock, but it didn’t take long for him to soldier up on stage, approach Rock, and haul off with a slap aimed directly at his face.

It was a shocking moment, but it didn’t stop there. Rock attempted to calm the situation down, but Smith could be seen screaming “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth!” Rock attempted to cool him down again, prompting Smith to repeat the same words, this time much louder, and much angrier.

There is a lot of speculation going around that the incident was scripted in order to try and provide a juicy moment for the sake of ratings, but it looks more and more like an unscripted train wreck. Rock appeared stunned by the ordeal, and had trouble regaining composure, even stumbling through his words after the fact.

Later, Smith won the best actor award for King Richard, where he broke down in tears and apologized cryptically for what is assumed to be his earlier outburst. It’s easy to throw shade at Smith for his antics, which were quite bad, but nobody except Smith and his wife really know how much stress her condition has caused her over the years.

Indeed, the actual trooper throughout the whole ordeal was Pinkett-Smith, who was brave enough to go to the show with a shaved head, only to endure the joke. Hair loss is especially traumatizing for women, and although it’s rare, it can have devastating effects on those suffering from it. Yet, she chose to go without a headscarf or turban, which deserves some respect.

Jada Pinkett-Smith has been remarkably candid about her own struggles with mental health over the years. In 2018, she spoke out regarding her own contemplation of suicide, which came hot on the heels of Anthony Bourdain and David Spade’s sister Kate taking their own lives.

Perhaps in his own mind, Rock felt it was just a good-natured jab, but this wasn’t a Don Rickles show, and Pinkett-Smith wasn’t sitting in the front row on purpose, hoping Rickles would destroy her. Rock, for his part, has been an outspoken opponent of cancel culture, and this was no doubt his way of showing that.

In short, it was a callous and insensitive joke aimed directly at a woman suffering from the challenges of mental illness, which led an actor at the breaking point to lash out in completely unacceptable fashion. There were no winners of last night’s debacle – only a spotlight thrown on the moral bankruptcy of Hollywood.

The real lesson of this spat isn’t the joke itself, nor is it Will Smith’s reaction. It’s a symptom of the ever-persistent hypocrisy inside Hollywood’s Leftist circles, where pretentious actors and actresses chastise everyone else for not being a better human, then proceed to do rotten things to one another on a daily basis.

Last night’s Oscars were utterly predictable, and showed once again the real face of cultural Leftism in our modern day and age. Jessica Chastain once again made a fool of herself by playing the pretentious LGBTQ fiddle for the sake of scoring virtue points, at a time when thousands of people are dying in an actual war taking place in Ukraine.

Later, multiple stars pretended to care about what’s happening in that country by wearing blue ribbons and pins, and singing songs everyone will forget about five minutes after the fact. In the midst of these people patting themselves on the back for how sensitive and lovely they are, the Chris Rock debacle happened.

It’s ugly, because it exposes a truth that these same hypocrites won’t admit to.

Ricky Gervais most famously poured gasoline all over the 2020 Golden Globes and lit a match, not giving a flying sod who he had to run over for the sake of politically incorrect skull-bashing. And it worked, because it was authentic.

Gervais meant every word he said, whether it was lampooning Felicity Huffman, accusing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of overt racism, or telling millionaire actors to shut their mouths and stop lecturing people about how they should live their lives.

By contrast, Rock simply wanted to get his name on a few of today’s headlines by trying to replicate Gervais’ approach. It worked, but for all the wrong reasons. Rock is in the thick of Leftist celebrity culture, while Gervais has openly admitted that he wants nothing to do with it. People noticed, understood, and agreed with the latter.

Hollywood is nothing but a pack of opportunistic hyenas who will tear each other down for the sake of getting their name in lights, and last night’s Oscars proved it. Once again, the quote-unquote “best among us” proved how disingenuous, hypocritical, and mean-spirited they all are.

For those crying “it was just a joke,” perhaps they are missing the point. Yes, comedy has been under assault by the radical Left for the last few years, and comedians have a long and storied history of brutally running people down for the sake of a punchline. It’s worth believing that most of these jokes were not meant to be taken seriously.

And perhaps neither was Chris Rock’s joke, but it came at a time when the people affiliated with that particular circle are busy trying to shut down comedy, and control what can, and cannot be said. Yet, at the drop of a hat, a cruel and unnecessary joke was made at the expense of someone who has openly admitted having thoughts of suicide.

Let’s make a distinction between those who go to comedy clubs knowing full well that the humor might turn cruel. It’s no secret, and those who can’t handle the heat should not have gone in the first place. That’s very different from a televised show where the target of the joke never thought she’d end up in the crosshairs to begin with.

If a Right-wing comedian had done this to Pinkett-Smith, it would have been front page news for the next three weeks. Football teams would have taken a knee and 2 minutes of silence, Jen Psaki would have condemned it in the next White House press briefing, the intellectuals on The View would be banging the table, Joy Reid would cry “racism,” and big tech would be calling for more free speech crackdowns.

Take the transgender community, for instance. We are constantly told by the radical Left that every single human being on planet Earth must lie to themselves about basic biology, all because we don’t want to hurt the feelings of a demographic with a 40% suicide rate both pre, and post-transition.

At least in that instance, there’s some semblance of consideration for the well-being of the actual humans involved, even though the solution to the problem should not be to reaffirm a mental health issue. It’s no laughing matter, regardless of opinion.

Meanwhile, we are told that offensive and cruel jokes, comments, or even scathing critiques grounded in reality and facts must be suppressed and stamped out, to prevent other people’s feelings from being hurt. Reality takes a back seat so that people can continue shambling about in its absence.

Leftists tell us that being fat is healthy and good, and that if someone criticizes you for being morbidly obese, that they are evil. Never mind that your health is at risk, and your lifespan will undoubtedly be cut short by an alarming rate. It doesn’t matter – feelings must be protected.

Leftists tell us that we must lower academic standards so that black students can get into college and university more easily. Never mind how egregiously racist and disgusting that bigoted insinuation is. It doesn’t matter – feelings must be protected.

Leftists tell us that every single institution in the country must be transformed into a safe space so that spoiled, weak-willed millennials who’ve never known hardship don’t have to deal with the fact that life doesn’t care what they think. It doesn’t matter – feelings must be protected.

Yet, that same Left will laugh right along when a comedian makes a joke directed at a woman suffering from mental health issues…and hair loss, at the same time. What happened to the part where feelings must be protected? Where did all that talk about the evils of body shaming go? And why did so many Leftists at the Oscars cackle along in glee at Jada Pinkett-Smith’s expense?

Did it suddenly become “just a joke” again? Maybe it was all along, but that’s not the point. It’s who is telling us what is an acceptable joke, and what is not an acceptable joke, then refusing to live by their own standards. That is a real punchline.

NEXT: Left-Wing Comedian Chris Rock Is The Latest Celebrity To Slam Cancel Culture, Stating That America Is Turning Into A Place In Which People Are Afraid To Talk