It’s been four months since Oscars Night 2022 when Will Smith infamously slapped host Chris Rock on, as Rock called it, “the greatest night in the history of television.” But Rock and Smith have barely addressed the incident since it happened. So that makes Rock’s comments about the slap during a recent stand-up set in New Jersey all the more intriguing.
US Weekly reports that Rock referenced the incident with Smith during a stand-up set at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey that’s part of his current tour with Kevin Hart. “Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face,” Rock said onstage. “I’m not a victim. Yeah, that sh*t hurt, motherf*cker. But I shook that shit off and went to work the next day. I don’t go to the hospital for a paper cut.”
Smith assaulted Rock onstage during the 2022 Academy Awards on March 27 after Rock joked that Jada Pinkett Smith’s haircut made her ready for a role in “G.I. Jane 2.” Pinkett Smith found Rock’s jest offensive, having been diagnosed with alopecia. After Smith smacked Rock across the face, he returned to his seat and yelled at Rock to “keep my wife’s name out your f*cking mouth!.” To add further awkwardness to the evening, Smith won an Oscar for Best Actor later that night, prompting him to make a speech where he commented that “love makes you do crazy things.”
Smith apologized to Rock and the Academy for his behavior in an Instagram statement the following day and was subsequently banned from the Oscars for the next ten years. He hasn’t spoken about the incident since. Neither really has Rock, who first addressed the slap during the first show of his sold-out comedy tour in Boston five days after the Academy Awards.
“I don’t have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend, and I’m still kind of processing what happened,” Rock said at the Boston show. “So at some point, I’ll talk about that shit. And it’ll be serious, and it’ll be funny.”
For her part, Pinkett Smith also spoke about the slap on the June 1 episode of the “Red Table Talk” web series. “My deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile,” Pinkett Smith said. “The state of the world today, we need them both. And we all actually need one another more than ever. Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and that’s keep figuring out this thing called life together.”
Pinkett Smith’s glib comments ooze with insincerity, but Smith’s relative silence on his actions speaks even louder. Is Smith not saying anything on the matter at all a wiser PR move than Pinkett Smith’s words? As for Rock, he’s just getting warmed up, having also joked that he “got smacked by the softest n—— that ever rapped” at a secret show at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles in May.
Whatever Smith says about his behavior in the coming months is anyone’s guess. But whatever Rock says next about it will be hilarious. It’s only a matter of time before the next chapter of this story.