Somebody needs to send this man back to his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air… Cause he’s apparently got a lot more growing up to do.
For those who somehow missed the major scandal of the Oscars two Sundays ago, actor Will Smith walked up on stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face for making a joke about Jada Smith’s (Will’s wife’s) bald head.
You could say Smith got himself in quite the entanglement.
And sure, Rock calling a woman with alopecia “GI Jane 2” was in poor taste. I don’t believe, though, that Rock meant Jada any harm by the comment. As he is a comedian, Rock was making jokes at the expense of everyone that night.
What makes the situation even better, though, is that WILL SMITH INITIALLY LAUGHED AT THE JOKE. It was only after he saw his wife rolling her eyes angrily that he decided to jump on stage and tussle.
To his credit, Rock took the slap like an absolute champ. He didn’t react physically, just stood there stunned and said, “Will Smith just smacked the s**t out of me.”
In response, Will yelled out for all to hear: “KEEP MY WIFE’S NAME OUT YOUR F**KING MOUTH.” Twice.
This situation is so funny to me for several reasons.
Firstly, I don’t care how inappropriate and immature you think Rock’s joke was. Slapping someone and yelling at them on live television is even more inappropriate and immature behavior for a 50+ year-old man to be engaging in.
You can’t both condemn Rock’s comment and condone Will’s behavior. There was an appropriate and mature way the Smiths could have addressed the ignorance of Rock’s comment… but “slapping the s**t out of him” wasn’t it.
Secondly, I don’t know how closely anyone has been following the Smiths’ personal drama over the past decade, but knowing that background adds to the hilariousness of Will defending the honor of his so-called “wife.”
In 2013, after years of rumors that Jada had been cheating on Will, Jada kinda-sorta told reporters the Smiths had an open marriage.
Well actually, she specifically said the pair DIDN’T have an open marriage… just a marriage where they “both can do whatever they want, because they trust each other to do so.”
Whatever THAT means.
From 2013 up until 2020, Will and Jada had all kinds of drama surrounding their “marriage.” Anytime reporters asked them about if they were married, divorced, separated or what, the answer they gave never made sense and often left fans more confused.
Then, a year or so before the 2020 “entanglement” fiasco, Will told reporters that the two didn’t even refer to themselves as “married.” They referred to themselves as “life partners.”
Okay?
THEN came the infamous 2020, when it was discovered that Jada had been full on dating R&B singer August Alsina while she and Will were still married. Alsina told reporters the relationship had Will’s “blessing.”
Jada initially denied the fact she ever dated the singer… but when she and Will eventually appeared to discuss the issue on their family talk show “Red Table Talk,” Jada did admit to having an “entanglement” with the singer.
Fans had no doubt that Alsina and Jada got entangled alright, but it was still funny that Jada was trying to evade accusations of cheating by simply calling it by a different name.
Since then, tabloids have reported that the couple hasn’t been doing well, even living in separate houses for a while.
Until, of course, Will ran up on stage and got himself entangled with Chris Rock to defend his wife (wife?) on live television.
All-in-all, assuming this wasn’t just some wildly out-of-hand publicity stunt, I will be interested to see if Smith is allowed to keep the Oscar he won for Best Actor of 2022. According to the New York Post, the Academy has a strict code of conduct that Smith’s assault definitely broke.
But at the time of writing, I suppose all’s well that ends well for the Fresh Prince of street fighting, flawed marriages and highly publicized entanglements.
