“The slap heard round the world” was the cliche coined after Will Smith stormed on stage and slapped Chris Rock for making a crack about Jada Pinkett Smith’s baldness at last night’s Oscar ceremony. The memes began tumbling onto the internet as the incident skyrocketed to far more than a tiff between two A-listers and was being discussed in the context of toxic masculinity and violence in America.
Here’s my favorite meme so far, bar none.
Everybody from Ayanna Pressley to Marjorie Taylor Greene had a viewpoint. Washington Post:
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who has been outspoken about her own experiences with the autoimmune disorder, tweeted, “Our bodies are not public domain. They are not a line in a joke — especially when the transformation is not of our choosing. I’m a survivor of violence. I’m a proud Alopecian. The psychological toll we carry daily is real. Team Jada always.”
Bernice King, the youngest child of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, referenced her father’s teachings about violence, adding that “there are more nuanced, multi-faceted conversations to be had than ‘Who was right or wrong?’”
Is she talking to Ted Cruz here? pic.twitter.com/KbSWlBD602
— Ron Filipkowski ?? (@RonFilipkowski) March 28, 2022
Marge watched it “a million times,” huh? She loves spontaneous violence, or what? I certainly can’t speak for Will Smith, but I can only conjecture that when he finds out Marjorie Taylor Greene approves of his actions, that will be what causes him to severely rethink them, if anything does.
In any event, the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is taking action.
“The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.” ABC declined to comment, and representatives for Smith and Rock did not return a request for comment. […]
According to People magazine, unnamed show organizers “definitely discussed” kicking Smith out of the Dolby during the show; CNN reported the same, but added that producers couldn’t “mobilize” in time. (The academy did not respond to questions about those reports.)
Will Packer, an executive producer responsible for the ceremony’s vision, did not return a request for comment. After the show, he tweeted, “Welp…I said it wouldn’t be boring.” When another Twitter user criticized him for “making jokes about an assault,” Packer replied, “Black people have a defiant spirit of laughter when it comes to dealing with pain because there has been so much of it. I don’t feel the need to elucidate that for you. But I also don’t mind being transparent and say that this was a very painful moment for me. On many levels.”
It was a painful moment for all of us. While it’s impossible to reach a conclusion on a right/wrong basis, I think it’s fair to state that our culture is at a place where so much outrage has happened in the past several years that we are collectively in a place of confusion and pain. We don’t know anymore what is harmless roasting of a celebrity or a vicious, below the belt punch. We don’t know anymore what is a righteous standing up for oneself or an uncontrolled violent outburst.
We just don’t know. Our mores and morals are in a state of flux and change and we don’t have the black and white lines of behavior to guide us that we once did.
That is the takeaway from last night and good luck to the seers at the Academy if they can sort through this. I mean that. I’m not being snide. I would love to have somebody do a King Solomon on this and explain it so that we all could understand and learn.
All I know for sure is that this is a sign of the times.
I think it was Dr. King or Ghandi who said an eye for an eye means the whole world would be blind. I know those of you justifying Mr Entitlement’s violence must be thrilled to know Margie Greene is in agreement with you. I’m glad to be on the other side.
If one thing should wake Will Smith up, it’s the fact that Marge Greene approves. It would wake me up.
The only caveat is they both live in fantasy worlds of privilege.
Actually it was Tevye.
It was. But Tevye got it from Jerry Bock, who probably got it from “Sholem Aleichem.” And if it was in Aleichem’s story,, it may not have been origival to him either – although it certainly could have been. Aleichem died in 1916. King wasn’t born until 1929. Gandhi did overlap both of them, but he was more into the Bhagavad-Gita than the Torah. I would bet a whole dollar on Aleichem or one of his sources.
Just before coming here and reading your article I read the one about Will Smith’s just released apology directly to Rock and others. Let’s hope Rock turns right around and publicly accepts it so we can focus on other things. (Again, for the record I say that while Rock seems to have made the mistake comedians too often do of “punching down” so did Smith. Smith is tall, fit man and has a good five or six inches and forty or fifty pounds on Rock who as far as I know never did anything athletic in real life or movie roles. I remain doubtful that Smith would have walked up to someone his own size and done what he did.)
Or if he had done that to a woman who said exactly the same thing. Then the double standard and hypocrisy would be here. Doubt his defenders would defend that. So the fact Chris has a penis makes it OK for men to act publicly like macho assholes protecting the little women folk. Right. If he’s so sure he did the right thing, then WHY apologize? This culture has turned into a bunch of self entitled whiny bitches. Even more stark comparing us to true heros like the average folks in Ukraine. God help us if a true war ever reached our shores requiring REAL CHARACTER.
I plan to wait for the Academy to place him on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION. That will teach him a lesson. I don’t know what they can do to the drunk & coked up stars who applauded him right after. DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION ALL AROUND. That’ll teach them to not act like Manson followers!