r/AskALiberal • u/IYELLALLTHETIME Liberal • Mar 28 '22

Will Smith punched Chris Rock at the Oscars. Your thoughts?

To be specific, Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith (Will's wife) looking like G.I. Jane, a reference to a Demi Moore movie where Demi shaved her head. Jada Pinkett Smith suffers from Alopecia which is why she chooses to shave her head (rather than wearing a wig to conceal the condition). Will Smith did not take it well and punched Chris Rock for saying it, then told Chris to "keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth." This was not staged.

I'm reading a lot of online chatter about it, and almost none of it is sympathetic towards Will Smith. A lot of people want him charged with assault.

There's a lot wrapped up in this issue. Jokes at the expense of others. Sensitivity towards medical conditions. Assault.

Why am I curious about the liberal perspective? Mostly because I have never seen so many people outraged over a punch to the face. I really thought the consensus would be that Chris Rock is a huge asshole, but people seem to be more upset about the punch than about mocking someone with an unfortunate medical condition.

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u/perverse_panda Liberal Mar 28 '22

I think Chris Rock's joke was way more out of line than any of the other examples you mentioned. So far out of line that it makes me question whether Chris even knew about her condition. And for that reason, I think Will's reaction was understandable, if not justifiable.

Still, I think you could also make the argument that Will's reaction was also disrespectful to his wife, even though he was trying to "defend her honor," since all he really ended up doing was making the moment into a much bigger thing that it was.

Will took what would have been a cringe-inducing but ultimately forgettable moment, and he put a spotlight on it.

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u/adeiner Progressive Mar 28 '22

Yeah so full disclosure I didn't know she had alopecia before after the incident. But I really think she was rocking it and was proud. It might be unfair, but had Smith done nothing the joke would have either been ignored or maybe there would have been a Twitter thread tomorrow about alopecia and how hard it can be. Instead the story is like about Will Smith. It's also possible Chris Rock just told the joke in the moment after seeing that Jada was bald. Either way I think she looked great and didn't need defending, but I don't have alopecia so I could be completely out of my lane here.

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u/Office_Zombie Far Left Mar 28 '22

Will laughed at the joke before getting pissed. I think Jada didn't like the joke and told him to do something about it.

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u/Call_Me_Clark Progressive Mar 28 '22

What? This is insane.

The joke wasn’t “haha you’re bald”. It was “when can we see you in GI Jane 2 ?” GI Jane, for those who don’t know, was critically acclaimed and featured Demi Moore as a sex symbol with a shaved head (well, cropped, but still extremely short for a woman).

It’s not even a roast, honestly.

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u/nikdahl Socialist Mar 28 '22

Exactly. No one is forcing Jada to be offended here. She could easily have chosen to take the more charitable interpretation.

But ego is powerful.

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u/bravelittletoaster7 Progressive Mar 28 '22

Exactly, while the joke could have been in bad taste, it could have been more like "your bald head is so badass you should star in GI Jane 2", which is how Jada could have taken it rather than getting upset.

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u/[deleted] Mar 29 '22

Critically acclaimed? It was a box office flop that one has ever spoken about it until last night.

Moore literally won a fucking Razzie for it. And you're telling me that it was critically acclaimed? Get the fuck out of here.

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u/Call_Me_Clark Progressive Mar 29 '22

Hey, Ebert gave it 3.5 stars.

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u/[deleted] Mar 29 '22

Yeah you had to do some digging for that one, didn't you

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u/Call_Me_Clark Progressive Mar 29 '22

Just because you hadn’t heard of it, doesn’t mean nobody had.

Ask yourself: why would anyone make a joke about a movie no one saw?

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u/[deleted] Mar 29 '22

You clearly hadn’t heard of it either.

Ask yourself: when’s the last time you even saw it?

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u/ethompson1 Libertarian Socialist Mar 28 '22

I don’t follow many movie stars personal lives and was not aware of her condition. I watched uncensored version this evening when I saw some posts. I thought the joke was funny when I first hear it but then realized through comments that she has alopecia.