Joe Rogan has weighed in on the moment Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for making a joke about wife Jada Pinkett-Smith. You can see the slap here:
Smith stormed the stage after Rock compared Pinkett Smith – who has been open about her battle with alopecia – to GI Jane.
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Smith went on to win the best actor award for his role in King Richard, where he apologised to ‘the Academy’ and his ‘fellow nominees’.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience, the podcaster said Smith’s behaviour set a ‘terrible precedent’ and seemed surprised the actor wasn’t kicked out of the ceremony.
“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 to go up there and accept it and give a speech, after he assaulted a small comedian," Rogan said.
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“You can’t just go smack a man in the face in front of the world and then go about business as usual. First of all, it sets a terrible precedent – in so many different ways – it sets a terrible precedent for, like, comedy clubs. Are people going to go on stage and smack the comedian on there?"
He continued: “What are we saying as a society when the people we look up to, for whatever reason, for good or bad, we look up to actors, and the Academy Awards are supposed to be them in their most regal outfits and best behaviour and to drop down to violence for something so innocuous as a GI Jane joke.”
Rogan went on to say high profile celebrities, such as Smith, lived in a ‘fake world’ and that he had acted like he was in a movie.
He said: “And then sit there quivering, saying ‘Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth’, and everybody’s just gotta sit there in the s**t that you just took on the table.
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“You just pulled your pants down and took a s**t on the dinner table, and they all have to just sit there and look at that. That’s what it’s like. The whole idea behind it is completely irrational.
“But what I’m saying is like, these people live in this fake world of, you know, you’re protected by guards, you’re driven by limos, you’re on the red carpet, like all of it is crazy life.
“And he’s so God damn famous, and so removed from regular discourse and interaction with regular people, that he, for whatever reason in his head, acted like he’s a character in a movie.”
Topics: Will Smith, Joe Rogan, Celebrity, TV and Film
Claire Reid