Before Chris Rock had an awkward experience on live television during the Oscars with Will Smith, he had one with Joan Rivers on her The Late Show. How funny was the 21-year-old in that 1987 appearance?
Wanda Sykes is going to be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on April 7th, but she taped her appearance yesterday. The first question Ellen asked her was about the slap heard around the world at the Oscars.
Sykes told the host she was preparing to do a costume change when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, so she didn’t see it happen. However, everyone backstage was in shock and could not believe what had just transpired, including the Oscars host.
Sykes said when she was shown what happened, she said she “just felt so awful for my friend Chris. And it was sickening, absolutely sickening. I physically felt ill, and I’m still a little traumatized by it.”
She was also sickened by the fact that the Academy let Smith stay at the Oscars and accept his award for Best Actor. She thought, “how gross is this. This is the wrong message.”
Had AMPAS made the correct decision to kick him out, Sykes would’ve joked, “Will couldn’t be here tonight…”
Then Sykes added that she thinks Smith owes her, Amy Schumer, and Regina Hall an apology because the three of them “worked really hard to put that show together.” And with in less than one minute, he destroyed everything that they did that night.
While Smith did not apologize to her, Rock did. Sykes says that she saw Rock at a party, and “the first thing he said was, ‘I’m so sorry.’ I am like, ‘Why are you apologizing?’ He’s like, ‘It was supposed to be your night. You, and Amy and Regina, y’all were doing such a great job; I’m so sorry this is now going to be about this.’ Because that’s who Chris is.”
Syke’s cohost Schumer also weighed in with, “Still triggered and traumatized. I love my friend @chrisrock and believe he handled it like a pro. Stayed up there and gave an Oscar to his friend @questlove and the whole thing was so disturbing. So much pain in @willsmith anyway I’m still in shock and stunned and sad. Im proud of myself and my cohosts. But yeah. Waiting for this sickening feeling to go away from what we all witnessed.”
When Smith comes out of hiding, he is going to need to do a lot of apologizing, along with soul searching. I hope he is doing the latter because he has rightfully burned a lot of bridges.
Before Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, Smith went on a date with Rock on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Rock was a lot prettier in that 1995 episode when he was 30 years old than he is now.
Yesterday, Will Smith’s (publicist) apologized for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars on Sunday night. Rock told a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s bald head and compared her to GI Jane. I am assuming he didn’t know that she suffers from alopecia. I didn’t know it, did you know it?
Anyways, the comedian released an apology through A Woman’s Soul to the couple. He said, “As a comedian it can be difficult to understand which lines are to be crossed and which ones aren’t. Last night I crossed a line that I shouldn’t have and paid the enormous price of my reputation as a renown comedian. Comedy is never about poking fun at or making lite of people with major ordeals happening in their lives. Comedy is about using real life circumstances to create laughter and bring light to an otherwise dark world. With that said, I sincerely apologize to my friends Jada Pinkett-Smith, Will Smith, and the rest of the Smith family for the disrespect and disregard I displayed which was unfortunately broadcast for the world to see. I hope that, with time, forgiveness can come of this situation and we can all be better, more considerate people in the end.”
There were worse jokes told at the Oscars, and the Smiths handled it completely wrong. Smith should have used his words and not his hand to let Rock know how he felt.
If both men were smart and Comedy Central was brilliant, they would do a Roast for Will and Jada and have Rock serve as the Roastmaster. It helped to make Donald Trump president and Charlie Sheem almost respectable again. It would be ratings gold. Plus, it would teach Will and Jada how to take a joke, something neither one have been good at.
Oscar producer Will Packer wanted his Oscars to be a memorable one. He just didn’t want them to be remembered for a nominated actor slapping a former host.
So this morning, he tweeted his reaction to the slap heard around the world with, “Welp…I said it wouldn’t be boring #Oscars”
Needless to say, someone chimed in with it that it is not funny to make a joke about assault. To which Packer told that person, “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.”
I met Packer once at a press event, and I really liked him. I wish the Oscars could’ve gone better for him. But he never had a chance, and Will Smith destroyed whatever chance he had. But hey, at least they didn’t screw up the Best Picture award. So there is that.
