I agree with Jim Carrey that the standing ovation given to Will Smith was more offensive than the slap itself. Kudos to Chris Rock for taking the high road, and getting "on with the show" - shows a true professional. Glad his comedy tour tickets are selling out.

A lot of initial reports were calling this a punch, but it wasn't. It was a weak slap, I'm sure that Smith could have slapped much harder but that wasn't the point. It was still dumb. He should have just got on stage and asked Chris to apologize and hold up the show until he did. The dumbest part was Will actually laughed at the joke!

As far as DA prosecuting, you know he'd never see jail time, and for any monetary fine- he's already done to himself by negative reputation. Think of all the potential future roles he's lost in that 1 moment. Time to go buy an island and move there, cause he's now retired.

100% agree. The reaction was more disturbing than the assault.
Haddish reverting to the mindset of the early 80’s to say Chris was calling Jada a lesbian, tacitly excusing Will’s physical attack, Jesus fucking Christ could you do more mental gymnastics!? Remember that little known independent film, Black Panther? Were those bald, fit women thought of as lesbians, or strong warrior women? WTF?!
Also, if she was right, is being called lesbian really an insult to Haddish in 2022? I don’t see it as insulting.

I think Will should see prison/jail time. He should be sentenced to the absolute maximum allowed by law, he, with every advantage and privilege possible, brutally assaulted a 57 year old man with a sucker punch/slap from Muhammad Ali (lest you forget Will’s size and training at throwing punches)...not just in public, but on an international broadcast. Then I think Chris should sue for $500 million for damage to his international reputation and career. It has to be an amount that hurts, not a few weeks work worth of pay.

Does anyone think Will’s bare minimum late apology is sincere, or that he deserves less punishment because of who he is, how much money he has, or because he eventually “apologized”?

Would he think so if Chris had slapped the shit out of Jada in public, then cursed her out during her performance?! (Don’t get all sexist, the size and power difference are similar.).
That should be the measure of damage IMO. If someone did the exact same thing to his loved one, what would Will think is an appropriate punishment? Guaranteed a fine and stern talking to wouldn’t satisfy, so it shouldn’t be on the table.

What did you say? Say that again! Come back! What did you mean by that? Who do you think you are to insult us like that? Apologize instantly or..

Yeah context matters, but if I dont stand up for my wife when she feels insulted or endangered, and it does not have to be a physical or escalatory response, I can expect to be considered part of the problem. Sometimes you cant keep sitting on the fence and be all moral and philosophical about stuff. Either you fight or you retreat, a quick decision must be made on how far you want to take it.

That is why I think it was staged. No party planned to follow up, take this further. If theyd never speak about it (or to each other) again, I would believe it.

LOL at my wife wanting me to take risks. Unless I was taking on a perceived risk to her.

I'm not particularly concerned what immediately happened to the slap at the Oscars. The confusion around whether it was scripted or not is understandable. And there were, are, and will have plenty of over-entitled actors/actresses acting irresponsible to the 90% of us (or maybe 50% of us, while the other 40% is just "signaling") at the Oscars, always.

Could Jada have stopped Will just by saying "it's not worth it?" Would this whole scandal happened if she didn't do the side-eyes that Will saw AFTER he laughed at the joke?
Is she partly to blame (of course not)? Who knows what headspace Will was at? It's Hollywood - where 99% of the people live 2, 3, 4 different lives behind & in front of the cameras. Not wise to judge anyone at that moment.

But what happened AFTER is more interesting. The lack of apology directly to Rock and the non-sense justification of his acceptance speech. Will & co partying the night away. Those speaks volumes to what one can make of his speech and tears.

One thing's for sure, as newtboy wrote, Smith just handed white supremacists the biggest gift one person possibly could.

So far Chris has refused to even make a police report, much less a complaint.

Nonetheless, the DA should at least threaten to press charges anyway IMO. A public assault like that shouldn’t be ignored or it sends a clear public message that it’s ok, and it is not.

Edit: The Oscars themselves also bear a huge portion of blame. After this, they didn’t remove Will as they ABSOLUTELY should have, they didn’t strip him of his Oscar as they absolutely should have, instead they continued to honor him, not only awarding him the Oscar but giving him unlimited time to speak (where he didn’t apologize to Quest Love, who Chris was awarding an Oscar, nor the dead who’s memorial was overshadowed and murmured through, nor to Chris who he had just assaulted like the out of control thug racists want to paint him as.)
He just handed white supremacists the biggest gift one person possibly could.
#teamChris
BTW, I notice Will thought the joke was hilarious (:25 he’s laughing at the joke) before deciding it wasn’t. Shouldn’t he slap the shit out of himself too?

I doubt Chris will press charges. I think Will will apologize and realize he was a showoff bully asshole and carry the guilt with him and regret his actions.

If not, he is a good actor and can fake it. Or maybe he watched Bill Maher's latest show and thought he was being the man's man and defending his woman.

What I do know is that he made the Oscars all about him. He stole the show.

Now... if you don't mind, I'm going to Google Bald Jokes.

To be fair, he has a point about evolution. Has anyone checked if certain republicans are actually australopithecus with suits and decent haircuts?

(Cheap dig for a cheap laugh, I know. My apologies to my noble ancestors.)

Sorry if I’m being over sensitive….anything that seems to legitimize the bastardized definition of CRT, in my eyes, is buying into the intentional political ruse to paint any anti racism program, plan, or organization, even unpleasant history with the “CRT” label (and everyone knows CRT is the Devil), and I find that upsetting, even when it’s unintentional….maybe more so when it’s unintentional because that means the rebranding and improper conflation is working.

I think you know, CRT is an advanced law class taken by law students, not a racist movement to erase white people from history as the right claims, not a diabolical plan to make all white children self hating BLM activists, and it really irks me how successful the publicly admitted, intentional, blatantly racist scapegoating and misrepresentation has worked.

It seemed you were accepting the right wing definition even as you dismissed the (I assume anti) “CRT” movement by comparing it to unconstitutional anti German/foreign language laws in the past. Apologies if I misunderstood or came across as accusatory.

This is a question of Martin Hyde clearly thinking himself above the law.
This is a question of how many times has he done this and not been caught on camera?
This was clearly not the first time he tried to use his connections to threaten and bully his way out of responsibility for his own actions, just the first time it was made public. It’s not so much about this one instance, it’s about this being the man’s personality, and people with that personality should never have any authority….not one whit. If you don’t think he would abuse his power as a congressman, there’s something wrong with you.

That “apology” was extremely weak and much more of an excuse than an apology. It was him trying to say “I helped them, they owed me” and “they should have known who I was and let me go” and “it wasn’t that bad” and “see, my son is a cop, so I love and respect cops despite all evidence to the contrary”. Anyone accepting that apology never saw a problem to begin with.

Candidate Martin Hyde apologizes for 'belligerent and rude' behavior toward officer who pulled him over.

I wonder if he was cited for expired registration.

TLDR Printing money is not a solution to anything, also it is not the reason the economy sucks.

Oh yeah, Tesla stock, isnt there a rule of thumb where youre not meant to invest more than 20% of your funds in one vehicle? (insert pun apology)

If by all-in you mean investing all your stock funds in tesla, while you own your house (land?) and keep your pension plan and short term savings and long term non-stock investments intact then go for it! May you live in interesting times!

I know. It sounds absurd don't it?

I'm not paying you to not kill me. You gave me back my stuff. I give you back your money. We're even.

You realize I'm not the person you thought I was. You also admit you were the bad guy. Hopefully you learned something about yourself. You also realize you are given a second chance.

The only thing you have to do now is apologize to your wife and hope she can forgive you or you ain't gettin' no nookie no moe.

Edit: It’s sad that thieves caught red handed are allowed to get away with these blatantly false excuses and half apologies so often.

(Removed by request)

It wasn’t so much a discovery as a realization, no one told me…I never believed in magic, the supernatural, or mythological monsters, so the first serious examination of what Santa allegedly did was enough to understand it was just a cultural fantasy. I’m embarrassed it took me so long to consider….I might have even been 6.

Eventually I forgave them, but at the time I remember telling them I was very disappointed in them for lying to me, especially over something so dumb.
They were surprised, I think they apologized, and explained they were just trying to make things fun, not trick me somehow. I reminded them of the part about coal and switches if I was bad, and Santa knowing everything. I don’t remember their response to that, but I imagine on some level they were proud I figured out it was really about behavioral control at that young age.

Many apologies.