I haven’t watched the Oscars. Even when Kristen watched them I was doing something else with my time. I just don’t care about what Hollywood thinks of Hollywood.
But with the Oscars this spring we have the Will Smith & Chris Rock slap. Some say that the slap was staged to boost failing ratings. The problem with this theory is you would have to be watching the Oscars in the first place to boost it’s ratings. Instead of seeing the slap on the news or YouTube after the fact.
So this wasn’t staged. You can tell by how Chris Rock lost his pace after the event and stumbled around to continue with this presentation. And why he isn’t pressing charges for the assault. When are we going to get hands registered as assault weapons?
Chris Rock got off easy for insulting Will Smith’s wife. Will Smith could have come up on stage and punched Chris Rock’s lights out. Will Smith could have backhanded Chris Rock into next week. But he only slapped him and then yelled at him from his seat.
In the 1800’s there would have been a duel of honor for insulting a man’s wife. Pistols at 20 paces or a sword fight. Again, Chris Rock got off easy. And Will Smith came to defend the honor of his wife.
So, a few things:
Staged: by the body language, it could have been. In a stage combat, the “victim” makes it look real. Rock’s reaction to the slap felt a bit overplayed to me. Then again, Rock, overacting? No! (Where, oh where is my sarcasm format button?)
Why staged? Rock, who had previously lost traction even with the crowd who enjoy his vapid racism masquerading as humor, is seeing a serious surge in ticket sales. We won’t know until the box office numbers hit fully, but there may be an uptick in sales for him as well.
This society has become very interested in siding and canceling so there’s a risk. The culture in which I grew up realized that we vote with dollars. It’s why Metallica will never see another penny from me in my lifetime. But today’s world, wholly focused on labels and fitting into “identities” has jumped right up to be drafted Team Smith or Team Rock.
While I believe both men demonstrated a lapse of judgment, you will most certainly catch that I honor a man for losing control of his open handed slap in defense of his wife (deservedly or not) over a man who loses control of his mouth to insult a woman for a medical condition. But I really don’t want to play this game! We can see both sides without villifying either.
Faked or not, this whole event was evidence of lack of self control—if faked, they showed little character in not refusing; if not faked, they were each flaming buttholes-and so this is just evidence that we need a little more Jesus in our world. Lol
Great discussion, my friend. Always happy to read your thoughts and word spar with you!