Will Smith Single-Handedly Stunned the World at the Oscars

On March 28, the 94th Academy Award Ceremony took place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. When comedian Chris Rock arrived on stage to present the Best Documentary Feature, he joked impromptu about actress Jada Smith’s bald head. After hearing the joke, Jada Smith’s husband, actor Will Smith walked on stage and used his right hand to slap Chris Rock across his face.

Right after the slap, Rock responded to the audience with a vulgar comment on the slap as Smith retreated back to the audience. Smith then vulgarly yelled at Rock from the audience for Rock to keep his wife’s name out of Rock’s mouth.

Rock’s joke compared Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head to Demi Moore’s shaved head in the movie G.I. Jane. The original phrase was “Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it, all right?” After Jada Smith, who suffers from alopecia, heard the joke, she laughed a little but immediately rolled her eyes with displeasure. Upon seeing his wife’s displeasure, Smith committed the assault.

Smith also won Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance as Richard Williams in the movie King Richard. In Smith’s acceptance speech, he apologized to the academy and fellow nominees, also becoming tearful during the speech. However, he did not directly apologize to Chris Rock at the Oscars.

On March 29, the day after the Oscars, Will Smith posted a formal, written apology on his Instagram account. The apology came in two photos, which are here below.

“Does he have anger issues?” Said a student who wishes to remain anonymous. “He needs to have some self-control, he’s such a big public figure!”

Within one hour of the slap, the footage of it received over 50 million views on the video website YouTube alone. Smith’s slap became the #1 featured video on YouTube in different countries, including the US, UK, Australia, and a number of other nations. Due to the video’s international popularity, Smith’s slap was also referred to by various media and news websites as the “slap around the world.”

“I feel kind of bad for Chris Rock,” said Mark G., a freshman at AISG. “I didn’t know him before the Oscars, but I probably met him in one of the worst ways possible- after a televised slap.”

Chris Rock was scheduled for a stand-up comedy session in Wilbur Theatre, Boston on March 30. At the beginning of the show, he received a standing ovation for two minutes from the crowd. An audience also sardonically asked Rock about his weekend (which included the Oscars on Sunday), to which Rock responded that he’s still “processing what happened,” and at “some point I’ll talk about it and it’ll be serious, it’ll be funny.”

The Academy tweeted that they do not “condone violence in any form.” And pledged to launch an investigation into the whole incident.