The Will Smith slap on Chris Rock at the Oscars continues to be a topic of discussion on various platforms. During Tuesday’s episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Joe Rogan talked about the aftermath comedians will face as a result of this incident.
Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, referencing the movie “G.I. Jane” as he played off her haircut, which is due to her hair loss condition.
These remarks resulted in Smith heading up to the stage, leading to the slap, and Rogan argues that the meltdown now sets a dangerous precedent for comedy and live performances.
“It was a rare instance where someone is so enormously famous and successful like Will Smith that they literally still allowed him to not just win the Academy Award but also go up and accept it and give a speech after he assaulted a small comedian,” Rogan said.
MMA fighter Josh Barnett, who was Rogan’s guest on the episode, stated that Smith needed to be escorted out of the ceremony. “They should’ve ejected him! They should’ve ejected him from the show!” Barnett said.
Rogan said that Smith shouldn’t have been allowed to smack Rock and proceed as though nothing had happened. Several minutes later, Smith was back on stage accepting the best actor award for his role in the film “King Richard.”
“You can’t just go smack a man in the face in front of the world and go about business as usual. It sets a terrible precedent in so many different ways. It sets a terrible precedent for comedy clubs. Like, are people going to decide to go on stage and smack a comedian now?”
“I don’t necessarily think people are going to change their behavior, but dumb people might,” he said. “But also it’s like what are we saying as a society when the people that we look up to, for whatever reason, for good or for bad, we look up to actors. And the Academy Awards is supposed to be them in their most regal- their most regal outfits, their best behavior and to drop down to violence for something so innocuous as a G.I. Jane joke.”