Will Smith’s explanation was not accepted by Chris Rock’s brother Kenny Rock, who disclosed that his comedian brother was unaware of Jada Pinkett Smith‘s alopecia, which she had openly discussed.
The Oscar 2022 Slapgate:
Chris Rock made a joke about Will Smith‘s wife Jada’s style for the 94th annual Academy Awards ceremony. Chris stated she looked like GI Jane and would be excellent for GI Jane 2 because of her baldness. Will was enraged at the joke, and during the live broadcast, he rushed up to the podium and smacked Chris on his face. “Keep my wife’s name out of your f***** mouth,” Will shouted at Chris as he took his place. The incident, as it unfolded, astounded all the celebrities in attendance.
Kenny Rock’s statement:
Kenny, Chris’s 42-year-old brother, told the Los Angeles Times on Monday that he was unaware of Jada’s medical condition: “The joke was funny. It wasn’t hilarious funny, but I know that if he knew that she had alopecia … he wouldn’t make a joke about that. But he didn’t know”.
“It eats at me watching it over and over again because you’ve seen a loved one being attacked and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Kenny said of seeing his sibling hit on live television. He went on to say that seeing the footage all over the place is distressing: “My brother was no threat to him and you just had no respect for him at that moment. You just belittled him in front of millions of people that watch the show”.
Related: Will Smith-Chris Rock’s smack lands home on the Grammys: Onstage, Trevor Noah cracks jokes, and Nate Bargatze dons a helmet.
Comedian Trevor Noah kicked off the Grammy Awards by making a joke about Will Smith’s infamous Oscars smack at Chris Rock.
“Don’t even think of this as an award show,” Noah said about the ceremony. “It’s a concert where we are giving out awards, we will be listening to music, dancing, sing, keeping people’s names out of our mouths and we are going to give people awards all throughout the night. So let’s get straight into it.”
Nate Bargatze wore a helmet and said, “They said comedians have to wear these now at award shows during the joke parts. It doesn’t even cover your face, I think it just focuses where you would hit me. All right, this is stupid, I’ll take it off.”
