Smith lost a lot of fans right there….me included.
If you don’t have a sense of humor about yourself, don’t go to awards shows where the audience is fair game for jokes at their expense. Same for your wife/husband.
If being bald is a touchy subject, wear a wig. (Coming from a bald guy who’s been bald by choice for 25 years and never once got mad at a Mr Clean or penis head joke).

Will can fuck right off with his violent tantrum (or pretend tantrum if this is some scripted ploy). Chris should have decked him back in the face, kicked him in the balls, and kicked him off stage head first. What a child. I hope charges are pressed and lawsuits filed….he deserves them. If there aren’t repercussions, that’s a good indicator this was scripted to boost dismal ratings, which IMO might be worse.

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.

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?

*cinema

Adding video to channels (Cinema) - requested by ant.

Love the Academy's statement: "The Academy does not condone violence of any form", and yet they just did. Here's your trophy, congratulations. Pretty gutless. Can't wait for the first angry dad punching out a ref or umpire at his kid's game, and uses the Will Smith defense... "It was a bad joke so I broke his jaw". What an excellent role model.

I confuse my heroes who are characters with the actors that play them sometimes.
Apparently, Will Smith is not the guy from The Pursuit of Happiness.
Apparently, Will Smith is not Fresh Prince.
Apparently, Will Smith is not that heroic pilot from Independance Day.
Apparently, Will Smith is an asshole.

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.

You aren’t alone…it seemed…off. That said, it’s hard to believe both of them and the Oscars would all think this was a good idea and script it.
I thought the smirk was a little self satisfied swagger, feeling like a big man before the reality hit that he had just blown his image.

I really want to think it’s just too dumb to be staged, who looks good here?…but dumber things have happened.

I did a bit more reading on the aftermath and it seems legit in that "could only happen in Hollywood" sort of way. Even considering Jada's alopecia, the bad joke didn't seem like it would be worth potentially ruining his career over. As you said, guys that are bald or fat or short, etc get made fun of ALL the time. What blows my mind is that he wasn't escorted out from the awards ceremony - it's even crazier that they still gave him the Oscar and let him make a speech.

It's not far-fetched to believe that the Oscars PR guys/scriptwriters hold dear to the "any press is good press" myth. "Ratings desperation" makes any idea seems like a good idea to those bozos.

Perhaps some naive writer could have thought that….but what about Chris and Will? Certainly they would both know better.

My wife thinks it was the right thing to do.

I think the whole thing is fake.

If someone makes fun of my wife in public immediate confrontation is the only option I can think of. Unless drunk or stoned in which case I might laugh at the joke. And get confronted by her.

So you’re saying you and your wife are insecure infants and thugs?

Verbal confrontation? If you think physically assaulting someone over a perceived slight is proper, stay out of the south where they can shoot you dead for threateningly advancing on someone like Will did. Also, please avoid comedy shows, because insulting the audience is often part of the show….like here.

If your wife really believes you should put your life at risk (and make no mistake, confronting a stranger puts your life at risk) over such an innocuous joke, she doesn’t love you, you’re her replaceable bodyguard. 🤨

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.

When I was like 20 something I had a moustache which I mistakenly considered manly. I was in a theater when one of the actors chose me as the member of the audience to mess with. He leaned over a couple of rows of seats and grabbed my prized facial hair and shouted "take that off I know its fake. stop resisting". I normally dont like to be the center of attention but in the context of the show this was hilarious (even for me).

If something similar happened to my wife or kids it would be much harder to process and my first concern would be are they OK with this? If not, how do I stop this from happening?

Actually come to think of it, yes, I am definitely the insecure infant and she is 5 feet 2 inches of thug. Never thought about it that way.

I can at times be all three, for sure, but it’s not something I would be proud about.

There’s a big difference between verbal confrontation and this.

I still say it’s impossible for me to believe both intelligent stars (with their pr teams) and the Oscars all got together and said this would be a good trick to play for ratings. Maybe I’m naive, I just can’t believe that many people would be that stupid with time to think it over.

The best evidence it wasn’t staged came from Colbert….Will Smith isn’t that good of an actor! *slam*

I’ve spent a lot of time in the bad part of towns, living in East Palo Alto before gentrification, etc. I just kind of expect every random third person to be armed and a powder keg. Confronting a stranger in anger over a joke, even a joke at my wife’s expense, seems risky. I’ve seen people stabbed over less.
In her physical defense, I’m happy to take that risk.

A wise man once said, "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

And a poetic man once said “ To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.” - Melville
And “Revenge is a dish best served family style.” -Sideshow Bob

"I fart in your general direction." -French soldier

A wise man also said, "Fear, she's the mother of violence", which may well apply in this situation. ..... but really i just wanted to post a Peter Gabriel song

I wonder why people conveniently forgot that Jada publicly cheated on Will with her teenaged son’s teenaged best friend for some time…had a relationship with him, not a one time tryst. Anyone else think that, more than anything, triggered Will to overreact thinking her eye roll was at him laughing at the joke, not the joke itself? Once a cuckold forever a simp.

Toxic relationships create toxic people. Don’t stay with someone who disrespects you in such a devastating and demasculating way. That kind of wound never heals, and leads to things like this.

Side note, how is “can’t be in the audience for 10 years but can still be honored and attend pre and post events” a punishment in any way? Sounds like a gift to me….but I hate public speaking.
Also, are they going to let him record acceptance speeches they broadcast? I would bet the answer is yes….so they have now rewarded his violent outburst twice.