Chris Rock Jokes On Stage About Getting Slapped In The Face By Will Smith: "Everybody Is Trying To Be A F***ing Victim"
The Academy Awards earlier this year was one of the more eventful award events we've seen in a long time, when Will Smith walked on stage in the middle of Chris Rock's presentation to slap him on the face on live TV for a joke he made about Jada Pinkett Smith.
The slap heard around the world was headline news for weeks and it resulted in Will Smith resigning from the Academy and being banned from attending ceremonies for the next decade. Smith released an apology shortly after the event, but he released yet another apology last week in the form of a YouTube video. Rock didn't exactly respond to Smith's apology, but he certainly made a reference to the incident in his latest standup at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
Chris Rock Jokes on Stage About Getting Slapped in the Face by Will Smith
It all started on March 27 at the Academy Awards when Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith starring in the reprisal of GI Jane since she has shaved her head due to her struggle with alopecia. Smith was originally seen in the audience laughing at the joke, then suddenly he was walking onto the stage to slap Rock. As Smith walked back to his seat he yelled, "Keep my wife's name out your f***ing mouth!"
Rock, 57, didn't specifically address the most recent apology from Smith, but he cracked a couple jokes about being slapped. "Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face," he said on stage.
"Everybody is trying to be a f---ing victim," Rock continued. "If everybody claims to be a victim, then nobody will hear the real victims. Even me getting smacked by Suge Smith ... I went to work the next day, I got kids."
Presumably, Rock is making a reference to Suge Knight, a music executive who co-founded Death Row Records and is currently incarcerated for voluntary manslaughter.
In Smith's apology video, he said that he had reached out to Rock for a response, but he was "not ready to talk" at the moment. Smith says he hopes they can have a conversation soon.