Joe on Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock at The Oscars

Chris Rock said one of the most mild jokes ever. It was pretty mild. Jada Pinkett is bald. Apparently I didn't know this. I found out after the fact that she didn't shave her head voluntarily. She shaved her head because she's suffering from alopecia. I didn't know this either. So I don't know if Chris knew this, but Chris says a joke around. G.I. Jane 2. G.I. Jane 2. Looking forward to it. Very mild. Just laughed and even said, come on. That was nice. And then Will Smith initially laughed. Yes. But it looked like Jada was upset. And so Will changes his tune, walks on stage, and smacks Chris Rock in the face at the Oscars. And then says, keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth. Yes, he does. And then he goes, come on, man. That was a G.I. Jane joke. And he screams it out like, keep my knife's name out your fucking mouth. Yes. Like his lips were quivering. First of all, that whole scene doing that in that manner, in that place, is a great example of what's wrong with the glorification of just being able to go up to someone and smack them in the face. Because that whole thing was so weird. I disagree with you here. Please do. Well, what is your take on it? I want to let you finish, though. Well, no. You said you were going to disagree with me. What do you think? Well, I don't actually think there's any glorification of violence in the sense of free capability on Will's part. What do you mean by that? Well, for one, I don't think that there was any inherent given that you could just get away with it. I think that whatever Will did, he did it. And he was like, whatever comes with it, I'll have to own up to it. I don't think he was thinking that far ahead at all. Maybe he wasn't. But maybe he was being emotionally fragile. Probably. And he acted on impulse. Sure. I think it's a foolish impulse that you do when you know there's no consequences. I don't think. But here's the thing. I'm going to say that I don't know that he thinks that there's... Now, in terms of hitting Chris, in terms of them and their physical differences and capability of combat, let's say, yes. There's no consequences. But I'm saying, well, but there's no consequences in getting out of your seat and striking somebody on national television. Yeah, but I don't think he was thinking about that. I think he was acting impulsively. He was simply in terms of man to man and who's capable and what's capable. And you know what? That may be the case in the microcosm of things. But if you hit anybody for any reason in public at this point, you have the very real fact of all of the powers of law that be, especially depending on who you are and what the public and the cathedral thinks of you, smashing you to death until you have your penniless, bankrupt, and everyone hates you. That's not going to happen here. Probably not. But it's never going to happen. He just smacked him. He smacked. He didn't beat the shit out of him. He didn't harm him. He smacked him in the face and humiliated him. And that's not going to happen here. I mean, I think that's a way where violence is so... But there's no way... Stop. There's no way Will Smith is going to become penniless from smacking Chris Rock. I have. That was never... You wouldn't think so. He's extremely wealthy. It's not going to happen. And not only that, Chris Rock instantly didn't press charges. He wouldn't press charges and he just accepted it. I would say it should have been handled in the back. Or he could have at least... But listen, no. And not done anything about it. Chris Rock is doing his fucking job. You don't go and sit in the front row. You're a star at the Oscars. There's a professional comedian whose job is to roast people. That's what he's doing. And what he did was not even insulting. It's not about... It was a mild joke. It's not about... What is it? It's not about giving Will Smith a pass or saying what he did was right. But what I am saying is that from his perspective, if it was that important, he could have... He could have... Barring going up there and hitting Chris in front of everyone. And he could have said something if he had to do it right then and there. If he felt that it was that egregious of a remark. And I agree with you. Chris Rock's a comedian. The presenters at the Oscars are supposed to be entertainers, often crack jokes that either A, that they do themselves, in Chris's perspective, or from Chris's situation, or ones that are written for him. Chris is a comedian. I highly doubt that they don't know each other at this point, being in Hollywood for as long as they have. And in my opinion, if you really want to settle things, go do it personally. Speak to the person first. Give them an opportunity to apologize for things. Especially if they didn't realize that what they were doing was... I hear all the things you're saying, but they're not applicable. That was not an insult. It was the most mild joke about her hairstyle, in reference to a movie where Lee shaved her head. I fully get it. I'm simply saying... The idea that there's any justification whatsoever of him getting up there and smacking him in the face like that. No. He didn't need to go up there and smack him at all. No. But regardless of what you and I think of how important or how... What the weight of what Chris said was, just removing us out of the equation. If it's really that important to Jada, therefore it then becomes important to Will, then he should deal with it on a personal level and have a conversation with Chris before anything. Of course. Because you have to give someone the opportunity. Because one, you have to assume potentially that Chris had malicious intent in what he had to say. Well, how do you have malicious intent in a mild joke? Tell me about it. I don't agree with it. I'm telling you, dude, this is all rational thinking about an irrational act. It's an irrational act. What that was, he was emotionally fragile and he acted on impulse in a staggeringly stupid way. I'll tell you something. Somebody, a good dude who I know didn't mean any harm was kind of playfully, verbally sparring with my girlfriend. And she didn't... Actually, it made her really uncomfortable and she didn't really like it. And so the next time we run into him and my girlfriend's like, I hope he doesn't come up and say XYZ again. I'm like, I don't think that's going to happen. And he does. And I'm like, okay. So I pull him to the side and I'm like, hey, look, I know you don't mean anything by it, but XYZ. And we just have a simple conversation and the guy's just like... Yeah, dude, that's rational. That's a rational response. I get it. To human beings having some sort of a dispute. But to assume people have malicious intent, especially in that position, I think is an erroneous way of approaching it. So I don't think... I don't think it had anything to do with that. I think what he was doing was saving face. You don't think Will... You think so. He was doing some weird movie thing. He was getting away with it as if he was living in a fictional movie. Like the idea that you think it's smart while wearing a tuxedo to walk onto a stage in front of the world, like literally the world, one of the biggest award shows on earth, if not the biggest, and smack a comedian for the most mild joke. And then sit there quivering, saying, keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth. And everybody's just going to sit there in the shit that you just took on the table. You just pulled your pants down and took a shit on the dinner table and they all have just sit there and look at that. That's what it's like. A shit full of peanuts and corn and everything. It stinks. It's just 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, you know, like all of it is crazy life. I agree. And he's so goddamn famous and so, 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. Maybe so. And I only am not speaking in deference in regards to Will because I don't know the man. I never met him. All these things that you're saying could absolutely be 100% plausible and true. And especially a person like Will, who is in such an elevated position in society at large. And you are 100% right in that these types of folks get removed from reality for a variety of reasons. But it's often a catastrophic process to the person and how they approach the world. Yeah, but here's what happened right afterwards. He won the Academy Award, then goes up and does a speech. The whole thing was so bizarre. And it made me think, like, how many other human beings could be in a similar situation and pull that off? Not many. Like if a man walked on stage and smacked a woman. That would not fly. Would not fly. If a woman walked on stage and smacked another woman, I don't even think it would fly. Probably not. Probably not. But also, man-smacking a woman, we already, like, I feel like it's even an ingrained thing, like, you don't fucking do that. Number two, women smacking women, all the women are going to look back and be like, women don't solve their issues with violence. You're supposed to, you know, tear them down in other ways. And, like, women, when women start feuding with one another and one of them finally says, that's it, and they go to violence, it's almost as if they lost completely. Like, all the other women are like, nah, you broke. Sorry, you're out. Well, I don't know. Just simply because women just generally... Just plenty of world-star hip-hop videos of women beating the fuck out of each other. You can find a lot of videos online of women involved, Walmart, parking lots pulling each other's hair. Yes, yes, there are exceptions. I will agree. Kick the shit out of each other. I will agree. There are some exceptions. But I just think, in terms of society standards, I don't think they would have accepted it the same way. No. It's like, 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 on stage. Yeah, they should have ejected him. They should have ejected him from the show. 100%. 100%. I agree with that. 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. Yes. In so many different ways. It sets a terrible precedent for comedy clubs. Yes. Like, are people going to decide that they're going to go on stage and smack the comedian now? I hope they try to smack Brendan or you. I just want to see one Joe Rogan turning sidekick. Get chuggy! I don't necessarily think people are going to change their behavior, but dumb people might. But also, it's just 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. Yes. And the Academy Awards is supposed to be them in their most regal outfits, their best behavior, and to drop down to violence for something so innocuous as a G.I. Jane joke. Look, man, it's not the hill that I'm looking to necessarily die on either, in particular context. And having a conversation with somebody over something that made my girlfriend uncomfortable, to me, that was the way to approach it. But I guess if someone wanted to tell me fuck you about it, then it's like, okay, well, now that changes things. Right, of course. You don't care how it affects other people, and you're having consideration for me or my girlfriend or... I know what you're saying, but in this case, we saw it. No, I'm... You see all the elements laid out. I get it. Chris Rock's joke was so mild. I get it. And so, you know, Jada's allowed to take offense, and Will's allowed to take offense, but to jump up, run onstage, slap him, and then throw the scene that he did is a completely different story. It was a meltdown. To at least to go and give Chris an opportunity to talk to him, and maybe even Jada, and just be like, look, one, you can see that he did not mean to try and cause any actual harm to you. So, you know what? Just tell him. If you didn't like it, tell him face to face and be like, yo, man, hey, Jada, it really bugged you. You're talking about two totally different things. I get it. We both agree with that. We both agree with that. But to me, regardless of whether you're Will Smith or you're the other Will Smith, the former Special Forces guy who speaks Russian, was in all tons of 70s and 80s movies. He played Conan's dad in Conan the Barbarian. Oh. Like, that badass motherfucker. You could be that guy, this other super popular Will Smith, or Will Smith, that nobody actually knows who that person is. That approach has to be the same. There is no exception for you if you played Ali, or if you played Conan's dad, or if nobody's seen you play anything, even with yourself. Well, I think what we're looking at also is the culmination of a long period of, like, emotional distress. Like, that family's been public about all their issues, and, you know, there's a conversation that they had to have, like, the two of them together about infidelity or about open relationships, and they were openly mocked because of that. But I think there's a certain defensiveness that comes along with that. Well, then, you know what? When you've been out in the public getting mocked. Sit in it then. Sit in it then, because the public is mocking you for the thing that you brought to them. Yeah, listen, I'm going to agree with you 100%. So, for me, I'm like, look, if you think you're adding stress into your life by publicizing and externalizing everything, which, again, says something more about the state of things, like, why are you externalizing this shit? You know what I mean? Like, even when I told this story about, oh, you know, this fighter and I had beef, I ain't going to say his name. Because you know what? I'm not trying to create more beef. Because I'm not trying to live my life, even though I'm the war master, in some point of irrational, unnecessary conflict. When conflict comes, conflict, if it has to get to that, then it's destroy everything. You're a man of honor and of, like, deep moral principles and ethics. You have a very rigid way. You live your life with discipline. That's my whole point of this. This is a nonsense scene where you're allowed to just go smack someone. You