VIDEO
Jim Carrey Was SICKENED by Will Smith Oscar Moment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd9qrDtXq0E
Chris Rock has a duty to press full charges against Will Smith
Sunday's Oscars award ceremony broke new ground with a physical assault on Chris Rock by Will Smith, in an incident whose details are now well known by practically everyone in the English-speaking world. Immediately after, Sean "Puffy" Combs tried to play it off as a mere squabble among the pretties in Hollywood. "Okay, Will and Chris, we're going to solve that like family at the Gold Party, but right now we're moving on with love."
Smith later won Best Actor for his turn in King Richard, but outside Hollywood, who cares? He cried through an apology about the incident during his speech, but who cares about that, either?
I won't delve into the details of their sordid personal affairs more than to say that there may be reason for Smith to be sensitive and angry when it comes to other men either disrespecting or giving attention to his wife. But here's what we can anticipate, given the facts available.
Will Smith will apologize to Chris Rock again in private. This private apology will be made public, and Rock will be pressured by his agent and others in Hollywood to make nice and accept Smith's apology.
But Chris Rock has a duty, not only to himself, but to comedy as an institution, to do nothing short of prosecuting Will Smith to the fullest extent of the law.
In this scenario, Chris Rock represents comedy. Comedy is nonpartisan. It holds no allegiances to the political flavors of the month, year, or generation, and it challenges the status quo wherever that's needed. See Richard Pryor; George Carlin; and the long list of legends that have come before Chris Rock, who is a legend by his own right. As Mel Brooks once said, great risks are a requirement of great comedy. "Comedy," he says, "is the lecherous little elf whispering in the king's ear, always telling the truth about human behavior."
In the same sense, Will Smith now represents Hollywood and the cultural status quo. In that status quo, men and women are equal and should be treated equally. But also, according to that status quo, you can make fun of a bald man for being bald and it's hilarious, but you cannot make fun of a bald woman without expecting to be physically assaulted by her husband if he happens to be in the audience and finds it offensive.
You can expect a lot of equivocation over this incident — "Chris Rock had it coming" or "both parties acted wrongly."
But those assertions are lies. Chris Rock has absolutely nothing to apologize for. He simply told a joke. To put it even simpler, he just said something, and he was physically assaulted for his having done so. Will Smith assaulted another person for saying something that he didn't like. Discerning right and wrong in this instance couldn't be simpler for a healthy society.
What precedent will we set if Will Smith gets away with this without significant and meaningful legal penalties? Justice is not only about retribution, but about deterrence. If we simply conclude that Smith shouldn't have slapped him, sure, but Rock also shouldn't have told a joke that Smith didn't like in some sort of evenly applied culpability, then where are we?
We'll continue to be in the place where we are. Where certain people can be ridiculed and others can't be ridiculed based upon their social position. And that is a place where comedy can no longer exist in any meaningful sense, just as it doesn't exist anymore on late-night television, where this rule is strictly followed.
Chris Rock didn't ask for it, but he's in a unique position to be a hero and to shape the immediate future of comedy in this country.
Allow me to be clear. Comedy cannot die. Comedy will always exist, because it's a requirement of the human condition. But the best comedy requires fertile ground for growth, and free speech provides that. In the Eastern Bloc in the Soviet days, the best jokes were told quietly across the table at lunch for fear of reprisal by the status quo. In America, the best jokes were showcased loudly enough on television and elsewhere for the status quo to both hear and fear.
Again, the joke told by Chris Rock was innocuous. It could have been told by Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chapelle, Bill Burr, or any of their counterparts willing to take a chance in order to be funny. If Chris Rock concedes without pressing charges, he is conceding something greater than that slap he endured from a childish Will Smith.
Will Smith could be prosecuted even if Chris Rock doesn't file a complaint
Chris Rock almost made the Oscars worth watching. Almost. Rock declined to press charges, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the matter has been resolved.
According to California law, prosecutors are responsible for holding guilty people accountable for their actions and an obligation to pursue justice despite influence from the alleged victim or the community. The prosecutor can consider factors including whether the victim is cooperative or not, but that should not be the determining factor on filing criminal charges. The decision should ultimately rest on whether there is evidence that a crime has been committed and whether the case can be proved in court. The only factor that should matter is the first, but pragmatism requires the second. If there is little or no hope of ever attaining a conviction, there is no point in wasting time and money taking an unwinnable case to trial.
Naturally, House representatives Ayanna Pressley and Jamaal Bowman announced their support for Will Smith on Twitter before apparently realizing they had just endorsed violence and deleted their tweets. Bowman's staff took responsibility for his tweet and explained they thought the altercation at the Oscars had been staged, but Pressley didn't say anything. She just pretended the whole thing never happened.
Is the Will Smith prosecution unwinnable? It certainly shouldn't be. There were thousands of live witnesses in the audience and millions more on television. It should be simple for police to have a warrant issued for the show script. Unless there is a scene where Will Smith is supposed to charge Chris Rock on stage and slap his face, Smith should be charged with battery. Of course, that will never happen, because this is Hollywood and Black Lives Matter.
L.A. district attorney George Gascon is nothing but a George Soros puppet. He's incredibly soft on violent black criminals, so there's no danger he would ever dream of prosecuting a violent black celebrity criminal. Chris Rock could be screaming for prosecution of Will Smith at the top of his lungs, and it wouldn't make any difference. Will Smith is part of the protected class of elitists with incredible power to shape opinions and influence behavior. Will Smith can basically confess to being a cuckold to a tabloid newspaper and bizarrely become apoplectic with rage over an innocuous joke about his wife's lack of hair and have a very public meltdown, yet no one will lift a finger against him.
Of course, if Smith identified as a Republican or (worse) a conservative Christian, the outcome of this case would be dramatically different.
He'd be looking at life in prison without the possibility of parole.
John Leonard is a freelance writer and author of six books, including Divine Evolution and Counterargument for God. His next book, titled The God Conclusion, is scheduled for release in late summer. He may be contacted via his website at southernprose.com.
As actor Will Smith seeks to redefine himself, his shattered image, his relationship with his fans and Chris Rock after his violent assault and Sunday night’s drama at the Academy Awards, it is worth remembering his ambitions are not limited to Hollywood.
Poll: 3 in 5 Americans Condemn Will Smith Assault on Chris Rock
Jim Carrey on Oscars’ Will Smith-Standing O: ‘Hollywood Is Spineless,’ ‘Not the Cool Club Anymore’
Actor Jim Carrey said Monday on “CBS Mornings” the standing ovation actor Will Smith received for his win for best actor, which came after he slapped comedian Chris Rock, was evidence of how “spineless” Hollywood is.
Co-host Gayle King asked, “What did you think as you watched it unfold, and then what happened after?”
Carrey said, “I was sickened. I was sickened by the standing ovation. I felt like Hollywood is spineless — en masse. It really felt like, oh, this is a really clear indication that we’re not the cool club anymore.”
King said, “There was some question today about if anyone else had walked from the audience and done that, they would have been escorted out by security or maybe even arrested. The police asked Chris if he wanted —.”
Carrey shot back, “They should have.”
King continued, “They asked Chris if he wanted to file charges, and he said, no, he did not.”
Carrey said, “He doesn’t want the hassle. I would have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200 million because that video is going to be there forever. It’s going to be ubiquitous. You know, that insult is going to last a very long time. I(f you want to yell from the audience or disapprove or show a disapproval or say something on Twitter, you know, you do not have the right to walk up on stage and smack somebody in the face because they said words.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN\
Poll: 3 in 5 Americans Condemn Will Smith Assault on Chris Rock
A YouGov poll shows a vast majority of Americans do not support actor Will Smith violently assaulting comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars on Sunday night.
Interviewing 1,319 U.S. adults on March 28, the poll showed three in five Americans believe Will Smith was wrong to assault Chris Rock.
“Ehile most Americans did not watch the 2022 Academy Awards the night before, a majority now say they’ve heard a lot (56 percent) or a little (33 percent) about Smith hitting Rock,” said YouGov. “Around three in five Americans (61 percent) say Smith’s actions were wrong, while 21 percent say they were right.”
Perhaps tellingly, older Americans were far more likely than young Americans to denounce Smith’s actions. The polling also showed that 59 percent of Americans agreed “it is not ever OK to hit someone for something they said,” with about “three in five adults agreeing “Will Smith’s actions were not acceptable.”
Will Smith and Chris Rock are seen onstage during the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
On the question of whether or not the Academy handled the situation properly by allowing Will Smith to stay and accept the award for Best Actor, 39 percent of those surveyed disapproved versus 34 percent.
The Academy Awards fell dead silent on Sunday night when Will Smith suddenly stormed the stage and publicly slapped comedian Chris Rock for cracking a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s short haircut.
“Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth,” Will Smith shouted at a visibly surprised Rock after walking back to his seat.
***LANGUAGE WARNING***
Will Smith stayed for the remainder of the evening and even accepted the award for Best Actor, during which he appeared to condone his behavior by saying “love will make you do crazy things” and how he was channeling his character Richard Williams by defending his family.
Smith did attended the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty and danced the night away.
On Monday, after the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) denounced the actor’s behavior along with the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG), Will Smith issued an apology on Instagram:
Jada Pin kett Smith 4 Days Before the Oscars: ‘I Don’t Give Two Craps What People Feel of This Bald Head of Mine. I Love It’
Days before the Academy Awards, in which Will Smith assaulted Chris Rock over a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith declared in a TikTok video, “I don’t give two craps what people feel of this bald head of mine, because guess what, I love it.”
“Being a black woman and dealing with hair in Hollywood, especially in the era that I came up in — having your hair look as European as possible was always the thing,” Pinkett Pinkett Smith said in a TikTok video posted four days before the Oscars.
“And that was really challenging, because I liked my hair out, wild, and curly. But nobody wanted that. So I always had to do my hair in ways that didn’t feel natural to me, because I was playing the game,” the Matrix Resurrections star continued.
“I had to learn to get the courage to just go, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that,’ which is why I feel the freedom today,” Pinkett Smith added. “I don’t give to craps what people feel about this bald head of mine, because guess what, I love it.”
Watch below:
Days later, comedian Chris Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s short hairstyle while presenting on stage at the Oscars, at which point, her husband Will Smith got out of his seat, marched onto the stage, and slapped Rock across the face in front of shocked audience members and viewers.
Neilson Barnard; Robyn Beck/Getty Images
After Smith retook his seat, he twice shouted, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth.”
***LANGUAGE WARNING***
Moments late, while delivering his acceptance speech for Best Actor, Smith apologized to the Academy Awards and to all of his “fellow nominees,” but did not mention Rock in his apology.
Hollywood reacted by turning on Smith, calling his behavior unacceptable, saying that his excuses for hitting Rock were “bullshit,” and referring to his actions as a display of “toxic masculinity.” Others also called on Smith to apologize directly to Rock.
On Monday night, Smith took to Instagram to apologize to Rock, stating, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
Let’s recap.
Will Smith’s wife declared on her TikTok profile: I am not my hair. I don’t give two craps what people think about my bald head because I love it. Be proud of your crown.
Will Smith assaults a comedian in front of the world over a joke about his wife’s bald head.
This begs the question: how well does Will Smith know his wife ?
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
