Oscars producers didn’t know Will Smith’s slap was real until Chris Rock said “shit”
Rock's joke at the expense of Jada Pinkett Smith wasn't scripted
Aux News Chris Rock
In a surprise to no one, the G.I. Jane bit heard ‘round the world didn’t get past Oscars producers—because Oscars producers never saw it. Following an altercation between comedian Chris Rock and actor Will Smith involving a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith on Sunday (y’know, The Smack), ABC’s unscripted chief Rob Mills revealed reactions from the show’s control room.
“There have certainly been unpredictable moments where people have gotten up and done things, so we thought this was one of those,” Mills told Variety.
“You started to realize this is real once Chris, who certainly knows the limits of broadcast standards, said, ‘Will Smith slapped the shit out of me,’” Mills continued. “That’s when it became obvious that this was not a joke.”
When asked why the show was not stopped following the swear-laden incident, Mills explained: “You have to remember that you’re putting a live show on. Had this been something that was being pre-taped, we would have stopped down. Things would have been addressed. We would have seen what to do next. But here, you have to remember you’ve got a show to do. Obviously, this was something that was unfortunate, but it was not to a degree that you think, ‘Okay, we need to just stop the entire show.’ And the show just kind of went on.”
Rock, who has so far declined to press charges against Smith, hosted the Oscars twice before presenting Best Documentary on Sunday. He took comedic swings at the Smiths back then too—quipping that Jada’s participation in the 2016 #OscarsSoWhite boycott wasn’t so much a political statement as it was a cover to hide that she “wasn’t invited.”
Rock hasn’t publicly commented on the situation since hitting back at Smith onstage (“Wow, dude. It was a G.I. Jane joke.”) But Smith offered apologies both during his speech and later via social media: “Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable.”
The Academy is reportedly unlikely to “take back” Smith’s Best Actor statuette, but may be looking into suspending the performer. Whether Rock will face Academy-backed repercussions for going off script isn’t clear.
155 Comments
Whether Rock will face Academy-backed repercussions for going off script isn’t clear.For saying “shit”? He got slapped on live TV!However, I do support repercussions for making a dated G.I. Jane joke.
Especially when Mad Max: Furisoa was RIGHT THERE! “I didn’t know Jada had replace Charlize on Mad Max.”
Not to mention Dora Milaje jokes also being right there.
For making a joke that wasn’t cleared beforehand. The article does a terrible job of clarifying that, though. It’s only in the byline, basically.Rock’s joke at the expense of Jada Pinkett Smith wasn’t scripted
That already tells us everything we need to know, though? He was improvising. He’s a comedian.
When you put something in the headline or subheader, you should address it somewhere in the article itself.
Forget it Cartagia, it’s AVClub town.
Well, you see, we fired all the writers and hired a bunch of scabs in Los Angeles to work for free drinks so as you can see, this new relaunch is going exactly to plan!
Hey, ladies, have a seat and get settled so I can explain my perspective of how comedy is a lot like jazz!
Well then he has to live with the consequences of his off the cuff “joke” *kanye shrug*
You would be right on the money, if this was an improv event. But it was not. Everything is meant to be cleared for broadcasting and given that this would be showed on TV, everything has to be tightly controlled and for good reason.Everything was meant to be scripted. Every joke, every reaction, every statement. And when you look at celeb roasting events, the celebrity in question is prepped in advance as to what jokes will be told. The roasting is more about making the audience laugh, than it is about seeing the celebrity’s reaction(where when it’s a roast, obviously they are expected to take everything in stride, which is simple when they know exactly what’s coming).
It’s up to them whether they’ll rotate hosts for the next one, which I’m sure they will.
Yeah I guess you’re right, that’s why every acceptance speech is approved and nobody ever has to be played off because they kept rambling. They literally have an “Unscripted Chief” quoted in this article. Comedians improvise jokes. They may be back peddling it now, but that’s why they hired him.
And if that’s true, those who hired him would be in the hot seat for what happened. It’s their fault for hiring Chris Rock, especially if they knew he might improvise.
You know, I saw a lot of people here/on Twitter explaining that the presenters and hosts have writers backstage feeding them lines on the teleprompter. I saw someone somewhere “confirm” that Chris Rock “didn’t write the joke” that got him slapped. Now I don’t know what to believe.But I’m inclined to believe it was off the cuff.
I doubt it. All of the presenters’ lines are typically scripted and fed on the prompter. Which is why they usually come off so corny because they’re reading them instead of delivering them. As many other people have pointed out, Rock produced a documentary on Black women and hair and the complex cultural issues they deal with in relation to their hair, so I’m inclined to believe he wouldn’t just go for the “ha, you’re BALD” joke. I mean, his joke towards Jada in 2016 when he hosted the show (which he almost certainly DID write) was far more personal and potentially offensive – he basically called her talentless and that her boycott of the Oscars was meaningless because she wasn’t invited anyways.
Yup that’s hilarious. The guy who “confirmed Chris didn’t write the joke” didn’t give any information on who gave that confirmation, nor which writer wrote it. I find it so funny that just because one random guy says something, doesn’t suddenly make it true…this is the Internet after all.I will say that if the entire thing was scripted from start to finish, that Will gave probably the best acting performance of his life.
According to the Academy, it was indeed un-scripted.
I heard the writers gave it to him to use. FFS, Ricky Gervais has said ten times worse stuff to celebrities and they either rolled their eyes or laughed along and cussed him under their breath. Amy Schumer told two directors their movies sucked.
Regina made a joke about their relationship earlier in the show. You’d think that’d be more triggering than a GI Joke involving hair.
Seriously! I’d have been much more upset about that. GI Jane was about a bad ass woman who became a Navy Seal. Not that great a movie but still, someone pointing out you cheated on your husband (which we all know) is worse. Also, if you’re at the Oscars, nominated for a big award, or the spouse/partner of someone who is, you are going to be the subject of a joke by the host. It comes with the territory. Grow up.
Which is why Will felt he had to get up and slap Chris. He had been humiliated already earlier in the show and he needed to try to look like a man.
Yes, but Will couldn’t hit Regina.
Difference between Schumer making a one off joke about something and Chris Rock who keeps making fun of Jada and Will over and over again every chance he gets (this is the 3rd time that’s been documented, the 2nd time Will’s Ex Wife even told Chris to knock it off). Also, making fun of her hair, when he produced and starred in a documentary called “Good Hair”, which is about how black women are treated in black culture based on their hair and how not having the “right” hair can get them looked down on by others. Hell, he interviewed a woman in that documentary with the same condition as Jada, so he really knew that joke was in bad taste.
And Regina Hall basically sexually assaulted some actors on stage. I love Regina Hall but damn that was cringey and inappropriate.
I agree. Plus, I kept seeing Regina as Dawn in the amazing Black Monday.
Ricky Gervais does that at the Golden Globes, which aren’t a real awards show.
I have an extremely hard time believing that mainly because Rock would have better material if he was shooting from the hip. This just sounds like the Academy covering their butts since there is no paper trail of what the writers may/may not have been feeding to Rock.
RE: making a dated G.I. Jane joke.To be fair, Deadpool had already cornered the market on the only other way it could have played out, even if they put a twist to it: “Hey, it’s Jada, I hear you’re trying to reboot Alien 3.” But yeah, either way…
zip it Sinead
No, no. She’s going to do the Netflix adaptation of the Telly Savalas story.
I mean, he made an unscripted joke that poked fun at a woman suffering from a disease… it’s in poor taste to do on live TV, and while I agree that Will Smith should not have struck him, he definitely is not innocent of what happened.
Jada has always been near bald. Hell she was rocking a near shaved head waaay back in Demon Night and Scream Fuckin’ 2!
I feel like at this point there’s more Will Smith slaps Chris Rock articles than there ever were about Bill Cosby or Mel Gibson or Kevin Spacey.
Considering what else is going on in the world, it’s like AV Club is giving every writer the chance to distract us.
why are you here then?
Being distracted, obviously.
Yes, let’s just try to distract everyone from the fact that a SCOTUS judge’s wife tried to directly invalidate the outcome of a valid election and that judge refuses to recuse himself from any outcomes regarding that. Just another reason to hate Reagan .
What the fuck does Clarence Thomas (or his wife) have to do with Ronald Reagan?
I mean that wouldn’t really be reported on AVClub anyway…
Wait… What? By “what else is going on”, you mean like Ezra Miller being a schmuck at karaoke and Seann William Scott telling a story about getting mugged on the way to his Baywatch audition like 30 years ago?This isn’t fucking Reuters.
Yes, when I come to a pop culture website I too am outraged to discover that the coverage is exclusively of pop culture. I’m also furious about the wall-to-wall sports reporting on ESPN and the bewildering preoccupation with medical issues that occurs in the pages of the New England Journal of Medicine. And what’s with all these articles about women on Jezebel? Very suspicious; presumably some sort of psy-op is taking place…
Well um yeah because those assholes didn’t do what they did live on tv.
I would also argue that no, there are still way more articles out there about those dirtbags than Will Smith.
You’d be wrong, on Cosby and Gibson, at least. I bet this hasn’t even reached a .5 on the Snyder scale, yet.
When was the last time something interesting happened at the Oscars? Like, 1975?
2017
honestly, (1) I’m surprised this hasn’t happened before, intentionally or not—wasn’t there a rumor that the only reason Marisa Tomei won her Oscar was that Jack Nicholson called an audible or something?—and (2) I’m surprised this incident didn’t lead the Academy to ban anyone over the age of 40 from presenting. LOL
The rumor was that Jack Palance read the wrong name, the Academy assured us that wasn’t the case, if the wrong name was read, they would stop everything and correct it. We found out that was the truth a couple of years ago when the wrong best picture was read.
Palance, not Nicholson. Thanks, knew there was a Jack in there somewhere LOL.
Jack Nicholson called an audible…or consumed an edible.“And the Oscar goes to…M(aggie Smith)!”
2017 was certainly interesting…
I do appreciate that this has bubbled up the Sacheen Littlefeather/John Wayne brouhaha from the early 70’s where allegedly he had to be restrained from attacking her while she dared to besmirch the US of A over its treatment of Native Americans. Oh Marion, sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up, and also learn to choose the hills you’re gonna die on a little better.
I regret to inform you that Marion Morrison has been dead for decades.
so that’s what that smell is LOL
Probably because it was live and the world saw it.
It was one of the events of all time.
Everything against Spacey was alleged. Not the best example there.
I know I’ve seen more “alopecia” articles in the last week than I’ve cared to read.It’s just hair loss but you’d think a new form of leukemia has been discovered.
wow, what an important observation (that is almost certainly wrong)
Recency bias rears its big head again!Seriously though – those topics were covered a ton and were all over entertainment sites.
Maybe Kevin Spacey but I very much doubt there are more than have been about Cosby or Gibson.
i’d have to guess you’re under 30 or have a bad memory if you don’t remember Gawker spilled a lot of ink over Gibson calling the cop “Sugar Tits”. And his thoughts about Jews. And his Opus Die affiliation.
Not really. Go back and check
If it can be turned into a meme template, there will be blood (and retweets).
The Academy is reportedly unlikely to “take back” Smith’s Best Actor statuette, but may be looking into suspending the performer. Honest question: How does the Academy suspend an actor? (If it’s just saying the role won’t be up for Oscar consideration….he could just do a superhero movie during the suspension period.)
They make them turn in their prop badge and gun.
Finally a reason to make Hancock 2.
I’d actually go see that.
If this was a just world, the only movie Smith would be allowed to make after this would be Hancock 2.
2 Hancock 2 Hitch
Now all we need is a reason to make Hancock 1.
I could be wrong but I think he wouldn’t be able to vote in his category. He would still be eligible to receive the award. You don’t have to be am academy member to get nominated or recieve an award.
He’d also likely be banned from the premises of the Oscars for the duration.
I think you’ve got it right, plus he obviously wouldn’t be invited to attend the ceremony (although you don’t have to be an academy member to be invited).
Will Smith gets to watch from home next year as Chris Rock hands out the Best Actress Oscar.
I think he’s mean to present the best actor award next year. That’s not going to happen, along with no voting rights.
I hear that’s no longer a thing with the Oscars, so they’re off the hook there.
A suspension would just mean he wouldn’t be allowed to participate or receive an award. The Academy isn’t the Screen Actors’ Guild.So, yes, he’ll still be making movies.
I think they can revoke his membership?
Don’t the best male lead actor winners usually present the Oscar for best female leads the next year? They should have Chris Rock do it instead! That might sting a little bit!
Disappointed the Rock came up with the joke. It’s a bad joke, as in not funny, even putting aside the alopecia. The only nice thing nice-ish I could say about it is if it wasn’t for the slap it would have been completely forgotten by everyone watching the broadcast 3 seconds after it was said, and no one would have mentioned it anywhere after.
If the slap hadn’t happened and everything had ended after Jada’s eyeroll, it would have just been Chris Rock telling a dud joke, the end. Thanks to the slap, her hair loss is all over the news and her husband is going to do an apology tour.
He was clearly laughing at the joke. But the look of disapproval forced Will Smith to do something about it. So as you rightly said, it just amplified her medical condition all the more – but also inflamed speculation on their open marriage where she gets to do what she wants, but not him.Not a good look for them in general. It doesn’t matter to me “who wears the pants” because that’s their business. But it was a gross over-reaction from the once Fresh Prince of Bel-air.
Alright, who is Timothy Burke?
he is known as the guy who simultaneously is recording hundreds of streams of broadcast at any moment and then catching viral content. While some people post their cellphone recording of their Dish Network recording of some sports highlight, Burke has pristine footage of that highlight.
Captures an insane amount of media across the globe constantly. Used to be a big part of Deadspin when it was actually Deadspin. Occasionally pompous but provides quite a service in a lot of ways.https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/sports/deadspins-tim-burke-waits-to-turn-offbeat-moments-into-gifs.html
DAMN YOU, AGATHE PANARETOS. YOU’VE GONE TOO FAR!
Yup you don’t make fun of a medical condition. I would have liked to see Chris Rock poke fun at Jada’s role on the latest Matrix film.It would have been a lot more relevant vs G I Jane which was 20 years ago, starring Demi Moore(was Demi even there?).Chris Rock could have done a pretty funny impersonation of Jada from that film and it’s such a missed opportunity. It would have done so many things – advertise the film, her role and got some genuine laughs.
It must have been a little funny, because Smith laughed at it.
You’ve never heard of polite laughter?
Sure, but I try not to read the minds of people I don’t know (or even people I do know). Lots of people there laughed at the joke. Mind you, I didn’t find it funny, I just don’t think there’s an objective metric for such things.
Fair points, but I don’t assign must to the fact he initially laughed. Maybe he found it genuinely funny, maybe he laughed because he knew the cameras would be on him, who knows.
Yes, the joke was a dud. But if he was improvising, I cut him some slack. A good host improvises on live TV. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Gotta take the bad with the good I guess. Otherwise we don’t get gems like Amy Schumer’s “I was backstage doing a costume change, did I miss anything?”
Everyone involved was a shit, news at eleven.
I can’t believe they haven’t thought up a better excuse other than … well it was live and we had a show to do so we just kept going. Someone came up on the stage and assaulted someone else. Case closed. Smith should have been thrown out and probably arrested. (Although I guess that part is up to Chris Rock.)The fact that he was still even in the building to accept his award later on is fucking ridiculous.
Watching the footage of Smith being coddled by other movie stars like Denzel Washington and Bradley Cooper after the whole thing went down was just disgusting.
Exactly. Well said.“…well it was live and we had a show to do…” = well, we have sponsors to answer to = uh, money = revenue dictates all.
It reminds me of that sickening feeling when violence occurs in a family (or anywhere really) and everyone just goes tits up passive. Then, of course, it will never be spoken of again, but you just wait around for the next instance knowing no one will ever recognize what happened and is happening.
Right. If you are I had run up on stage and slapped someone they would just keep chugging along, huh?
It’s probably the truth. The show must go on in that business. 🤷🏾♀️ Seems they did a quick risk assessment and decided that Smith wasn’t likely to jump up and slap anyone else so they went ahead with the show. I’m genuinely confused about why people think it was “disgusting” that Denzel and some others went over to him during the break. Yours isn’t the first comment like that I’ve seen. If you saw your friend smack someone for talking shit, wouldn’t you go over to them and try to calm them down? Ask them what the hell they were doing? Tell them to chill out?
Could you imagine the racism blowblack for having a black actor arrested at the Oscars?
He stood up in front of an international audience and hit another black, only the smoothest of brains would think him being arrested for doing this is racism. If anything the fact he has currently faced *zero* tangible consequences only demonstrates another societal failing – how differently we treat the rich and influential when they fuck up, specifically how easily they get away with shit
Similarly, could you imagine the discussion if Chris Rock was white?
I…I don’t want to think about that.
After that Black Actor hit another Black Actor, I don’t think so.
This isn’t some simple American live show. This an international live show where you’re altering the course of already a tightly scripted three hour course. A security removal is already longer than a commercial break and that’s if he complied. I get the want, but there’s theory and then there’s application. This was arguably best they could do, and luckily nothing more escalated.
Would it just have been up to Chris Rock alone though? Idiots on the field in NBA/MLB/NFL/Soccer games get charged with trespassing, since they obviously weren’t allowed on the field or court and are acting disorderly. I would imagine it would be similar in this situation. I’d think that normally a drunk celebrity running into the stage, Kanye or Aubrey Plaza style, couldn’t possibly warrant such a response, but if any situation would be egregious enough it would be what Will Smith did.
Except that at sporting events there is a “contract” that you agree to when you purchase your tickets that states that you won’t “rush the field” during the game.
This was an invitational gala, with fewer restrictions on guests acting badly. Usually peer pressure and television cameras prevent professionals from being rude to their peers.
Right. The Academy really f*cked up by not removing Smith there and then. The horse has kind of bolted in terms of doing anything now. Are they going to take back his Oscar when they haven’t done sh*t about actions by worse humans? It would create an awkward precedent were they have to decide some arbitrary scale of wrongdoing. But “if you assault any of our staff/guests/presenters we will remove you” is a very clear statement. Letting him just go back to his seat, nevermind giving him a chance to excuse his behavior with his self-pitying speech, was stupid. And gross.
If Smith had been removed, you can be sure a big bunch of the audience would up and leave as well. It’d been a major disruption, possibly enough to need to cancel the whole thing. Regardless it’d have been the biggest shitshow of the ages basically, and obviously the producers didn’t want to take responsibility for something like that. Nor would you expect them to either I’d think.
I guess a few may have left but so? That would be on them. Most just looked as confused as the rest of us.Taking action of some kind when someone hits one of your presenters is not asking for much. They are responsible for the security and the well being of all there.
They also have to report to their bosses; the risk of screwing up THE Hollywood event of the year (which is a multi-multi million dollar spectacle) would likely be a carreer ender. Much safer to just let the show go on instead.
why would anyone take back an award for a movie acting achievement, from last year, based on his behavior at the ceremony? He’s not being honored for being a nice guy. I’m firmly in the “he should have been thrown out and maybe charged” camp, but jeez, leave the oscar winning part out. It’s really not relating to it. I’m sorry he’s an asshole, it doesn’t mean he’s not a good-acting asshole.
Easy to monday morning quarterback it, but this had literally never happened on live tv ever before, and if something of the sort did, it wasn’t at this high profile an event (I don’t count scuffles at 90s era Source awards, that shit was entertaining as fuck and par for the course during the East-West beef). So not having a plan for it AND it being literally one of the biggest actors in the world, shortly about to go onstage to accept his Best Actor award, is understandable that they flew by the seat of their pants.
(Although I guess that part is up to Chris Rock.) That’s not how the law works at all. He just didn’t, effectively, give a statement of facts/witness to the police. There is plenty of evidence to charge Will with assault. If I shoot you in the leg and it’s all on video, I’m going to jail, whether or not you do anything about it.
EXACTLY. He should have been kicked out and some else (wife) accept the Oscar for him and walk out. He should have not been given a platform to talk at all ! and much less to BS about being all about “love”.
Chris Rock hasn’t turned to social media to apologize for the stupid joke or to accept Smith’s apology, right? He should also comment on Smith’s son’s Twitter reaction to his father’s violence.
He’s too busy writing new material for his standup. Apparently ticket sales for his upcoming shows have skyrocketed since it happened, and I suspect he’ll be dining out on the incident for many years to come.
Indeed. Smith was very mistaken if he thought slapping Rock would prevent any further jokes at the Smith Family’s expense.Quite the contrary, I’m expecting Will Smith jokes to be a major part of Rock’s next tour.
What a tiny, precious little world you must live in.
Apologize? for what? not being particularly funny? Sorry, poking fun at near billionaire super celebs that already air their dirty laundry in the public is not a big deal. Not to mention the hysterical laughter that Will Smith was doing seconds before assaulting Rock.
lol Jaden Smith: “That’s how WE do it.” As if Jaden Smith could get away with slapping anybody. His sister can probably beat him up.
I’m guessing he has a posse who would gladly find and beat up Rock for social credit points.
Jaden would walk up to you, spend a good fifteen seconds lining up on you cheek, swing, and miss completely.
oh, THAT was the hint. The fact that Will Smith said “….off your fucking mouth….”, twice was not what tipped them.
That happened after Chris Rock said “Will Smith just slapped the shit out of me.”
Well. I mean, Rock said “shit” first, by a good ten seconds. So the article, and the order of events, is: Rock’s joke didn’t land, Smith gets up to come on stage, Smith *slaps* Rock (and the producers are still thinking—HOPING— this is some planned thing they worked out, or just a performance), then Chris says “slapped the shit out of me,” and they get ice in their veins as they realize, “No, this is 100% real, fuck.”The audio went silent right then (since they have a few seconds of lead time) and just stayed that way as the altercation played out.So, uh, yeah–the word “shit” was what tipped them, since it happened notably *before* the later, worse expletives.
Uh… Rock saying “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me” happened first, so it was indeed the first clue it wasn’t staged.
that happened after he said “shit”, chronology people.
““You have to remember that you’re putting a live show on.”Except for the half dozen awards given out earlier and awkwardly inserted into the live telecast.
Did they think we wouldn’t notice. It was off and awkward. Also kinda sketchy how the “LIVE” stayed on the screen for the whole time.
I’m in my 30s and I’ve never seen G.I. Jane. Who in the hell was that joke for?
“Obviously, this was something that was unfortunate, but it was not to a degree that you think…” Apparently, someone assaulting a presenter at your show isn’t that bad. News to me.
Will Smith barred and suspended into any Academy Awards from now on? Sure, if the board thinks that’s fully appropriate response.
However, what they need to do is never allow Chris Rock as presenter any more. Maybe even barred and suspended as well.
The GI Jane joke was bad, like off color bad. Wanna roast someone? Fine. Want to roast a person based on their political endorsements? Fine. Wanna roast someone on race, gender, sexual orientation, place of origin or religion? That’s a gray area.
But you draw a line when you roast someone based on their medical conditions. When someone is recovering or is still showing signs of recovery just leave them alone.
Chris Rock deserves to be banned, Will Smith’s repercussions is up to the academy itself.
Variety is providing air cover for the Oscars. Timothy Burke aka BubbaProg on twitter has confirmation from two writers in the room that the GI Jane joke came from the writing room.
Man, everybody hates Chris.
They shouldn’t take away his Oscar, that wouldn’t make any sense. His performance in the film was great and that shouldn’t be taken away from. What they should do is suspend him from attending the awards show for the next year or several years or even permanently.
I feel like the old pro wrestling fan adage applies: “If you saw it, you were meant to see it.”
Which has always been bullshit. There’s been plenty of shoot incidents that were televised.
I think “plenty” is debatable, for one. And any such incident that has occurred since expansion into national broadcast in the early 80s falls into one of two categories: A) disputed as to the shoot authenticity of the incident (i.e. Bash at the Beach 2001) or B) lolTNA (i.e. Victory Road 2011). In cases like the latter there is an evident attempt to reassert control, and that is lacking with the Oscars slap.For the record, I’m not pushing a conspiracy angle; conspiracy is unnecessary. This absolutely could have been and almost certainly was spur-of-the-moment—I’m saying that everyone involved, including the audience and production crew and security, has experience with live performance and improvisation. The audience is filled with professional performers who are already in performance mode because of the nature of the event. The production team specializes in these kinds of live events and are assuredly open to spontaneous, conversation-sparking moments exactly like this one. A slap to the face is, itself, an act of performative violence.Nothing about “this is worked” conflicts with the events as they happened. “This is a shoot for real” generates questions that the events themselves don’t answer.
That number can be counted on one hand, at least if you interpret “shoot incident” to mean actually going off-script. There have been plenty of worked shoots, like Heyman running down WWE at One Night Stand, CM Punk’s famous pipebomb, etc. Here, that doesn’t apply imo. Had it been staged, Will Smith wouldn’t have cursed from his seat (requiring ABC to bleep it out which would blunt the point of the bit, so American audiences only heard “Wow, Will Smith…” And Chris Rock would have had an actual joke/punchline follow up to the slap, rather than trying to get past the shock and saying something like “OK, and now we’re gonna give a documentary”
Except, uh, the American audience didn’t see it, did they? Pretty sure it was dumped a few times?
Bullshit
The lede could have been written better. The joke not getting “past” producers because they never saw it; is that meant to say it wasn’t in rehearsal? What does “unscripted chief” mean? Not a clear way to report on the claim in the subhead.
This whole article is a muddle. Is “unscripted” in reference to the joke (like the subtitle claims) or to Rock’s “Will Smith slapped the shit out of me” comment (like the body of the article infers)? And why this tweet from a video director at The Daily Beast insisting the joke WAS scripted? I don’t know which sensationalist media rag to believe! 🙄
Isn’t there a 7 second delay in broadcasting? Or it doesn’t apply to live competitive events (ex. wardrobe malfunction)?
Smith should have been walked out of the theater during the commercial break that immediately followed the slap and not allowed to come back. They had time to make that decision, they just didn’t.
“And the Oscar goes to… Will Smith for King Richard! Accepting the award on behalf of Mr. Smith is Chris Rock.”
Now THAT would have been epic…
I would love to see the entire feed from the camera that was trained on the Smiths at the Oscars. Starting from Will laughing at the joke.
Yeah, we saw Jada give an eyeroll to the joke and Will laughing, but the footage from when they cut back to Chris would be great. My favorite hypothetical I read was that in that short time Jada leaned over and said “this is why I fuck other men”.
The level of prudery that dominates American media is deplorable. Ooh, “shit” is so naughty. Give me a break! Western Europe laughs at all of this American uptightness.One would hope that the Sexual Revolution & other liberating trends would help America lighten up (Francis). But it seems that someone (Old Money? The Christian Right?) still imposes an iron fist of their draconian morality, probably because they’re “thinking of the children!”.& just for the principle:FUCK!
Will Smith unites white people like no other. He was always the Black man even the most conservative bigot could enjoy as “one of the good ones”. Now he has united conservative bigs with white liberals who are appalled to se a Black man strike another Black man.
At least you know what’s going to be played when Smith eventually shows up in the In Memoriam segment.