As in 'Chris Rock stumbled onto Will Smith's palm or knuckles (it is unclear). No need to go over what happened, if the memes have not informed you yet, it is probably by choice.
There isn't too much to be said that has not already been said, but when did that ever stop me from writing a blog post? However, I am in celebratory mood as I feel like this unfortunate incident shows that most of us are still on the right side of free speech. For all the worry that political correctness can harm comedy and free speech, most people were quick to condemn a violent reaction to an offensive joke. And that is either a reason to celebrate, or extremely low standards. Okay, my celebratory mood has soured; I was worried this post would be all too pleasant and cheery and no one clicked on this for positive sentiments.
Whether the G.I Jane joke was insensitive, in bad taste or simply inappropriate is a separate issue altogether,. The irony of it is, had Will Smith not physically assaulted a comedian during a public event, televised across the globe and cemented online forever, he and his wife would have probably gotten a lot more justice than they did. The topic of discussion would have been whether the joke was indeed insensitive, in bad taste or simply inappropriate, Chris Rock would have alienated like-minded viewers and Will Smith would not have made a speech about what a good knight in shining armour he considers himself to be but maybe shown some good old humility. So shining was that armour that it could not help but distract from the rest of the evening. So what if people had worked really hard for a bunch of awards, who would pay attention after Will Smith threw decency out the window and skyrocketed Chris Brown's ticket prices to over 300 dollars? Although to be fair, a lot of those who worked that hard were deemed unworthy to be awarded along with the pretty, famous people. So maybe Will Smith was, in reality, mad about that because he is sure shown laughing at the G. I. Jane joke initially. Even so, we didn't see Villneuve instruct mechanical sandworms to trash the stage, and we wanted to. Let's see if Chalamet really is the chosen one.
The Academy's reaction, however, is what is ultimately wrong with the whole situation. The reaction any self-respecting organisation would have had to someone they invited being assaulted would have been to remove that now considered dangerous individual out of the room. But the little whoopsie-daisy was that this just happened to be a beloved famous person. Interestingly, this is probably why Will Smith felt comfortable doing that in the first place. Whether they recall his Academy Award or not is, frankly, relatively irrelevant; the statement has been made and the example has been set. They were just slow; frozen when they would have to apply common measures to someone much less common. And that is why the Oscar's are becoming less relevant. And now that I have solved all the problems I can pat myself on the back and go have something carbohydrate-based.
I am not necessarily a fan of Chris Rock, by the way, he has felt outdated in anything recent I have seen him in. I am also a bit upset with him for saying the whole Tonight Show debacle was Conan's fault on 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' and I am therefore very proud to not have let these treacherous claims cloud my judgement. I have also managed to watch Seinfeld and the aforementioned show (CiCGC) even though Jerry Seinfeld also backed Jay Leno after the whole thing. Look how much I have grown! Well, not enough to not bring up Conan O'Brien even though he couldn't be any less relevant, but that is because I want to leave some room for growth to keep my readers engaged. Spoiler alert, not going to happen.
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