Chris Rock reportedly addressed the incident with Will Smith at the 2022 Academy Awards during a stand-up set on Friday (8 April) night.
Earlier that day, the Academy announced it would be banning Smith from attending all Academy events for ten years.
During the televised ceremony, Smith slapped Rock on stage and swore at him after the comedian made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
“Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see you,” Rock had joked, in an apparent reference to Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. Pinkett Smith stated last year that she shaved her head after struggling with alopecia.
Smith, who won the Best Actor prize later in the ceremony, walked on stage and struck Rock, before shouting at him twice: “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth.”
California-based paper Desert Sun quotes the comedian as saying at the show in Fantasy Springs: “I’m OK, I have a whole show and I’m not talking about [the Will Smith incident] until I get paid.
“Life is good. I got my hearing back,” he then joked.
According to the outlet, attendees were forbidden from bringing mobile phones into the building during Rock’s set, and were given locking pouches for all mobile devices.
The actor had previously mentioned the shocking Oscars incident during a stand-up set last week, telling an audience that he was “still processing” what had happened.
The tropical storm “Malakas” is raging in Asia – Why the news has gone viral in Greece (video)
However, while the reaction to the Academy of Motion Pictures 10-year ban on Smith was mixed, with some calling it light and supporters deeming it appropriate, comedian Ricky Gervais had the definitive take.
Following the Friday announcement of the penalty, he took to Twitter with his own comment on the move: “Hopefully, he’ll only do 6 years with good behaviour.”
Earlier, Gervais said that Chris Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair was “like the tamest joke I would’ve ever told.”
When people asked the frequent Globes host what would have happened to him in the same circumstances he replied, “Nothing.”
“Nothing would happen to me because I wouldn’t have told a joke about his wife’s hair. I’d have told a joke about her boyfriend.” (Pinkett Smith has said she was “in a relationship” with a younger man when she and Smith were on a break from their relationship in 2020.)
As for Pinkett Smith’s hair — she suffers from alopecia, which occurs when the immune system attacks hair follicles, causing uneven hair loss — and Rock’s joke, Gervais said, “Someone said it was joking about her disability.”
The comedian’s reply?
“Well I’m going a bit thin, I’m disabled,” he said while pointing to his hair in the video chat. “I can park right up next to Tesco’s now [in disabled parking]. I’m fat. That’s a disease. I’m fat and balding.”
Sources: Independent, Deadline
