Chris Rock recently gained a lot of media attention when the best actor winner Will Smith slapped him onstage at the 2022 Oscars, after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s haircut. On Sunday, the “Spiral” star made another joke about the slap on stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He was addressing the celebration honoring actor and comedian Adam Sandler, who earned the Mark Twain Prize for American Comedy.
The Rock teased the crowd that he had shared a couple of jokes that weren’t included in the Netflix show before adding, “Paul Pelosi is the only guy who knows how I felt. Just me and you, Paul”. The consequent reaction of Nancy and Paul Pelosi sitting in the audience is still unclear. The comedian seems to draw parallels between the Oscars incident and Paul Pelosi’s home attack in October 2022.
The 82 year old Paul Pelosi, had a fractured skull and had to undergo surgery as a result of a break-in at their San Francisco home, during which the invader demanded to know where Nancy was. The footage of the incident was uploaded online later on, which showed both Pelosi and the invader fighting over the hammer.
He also addressed the slapping event in his most recent Netflix special, “Selective Outrage,” in which he made light of the fact that he had a bruised lip and cut face and that his face “still hurts” after Smith assaulted him.
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Rock also cracked jokes about the slap incident throughout his comedy tour. “Did that shit hurt? Goddamn right,” he said last year. “The motherfucker hit me over a bullshit joke, the nicest joke I ever told.”
He added, “I’m not a victim. Yeah, that shit hurt, motherfucker. But I shook that shit off and went to work the next day. I don’t go to the hospital for a paper cut.”
Afterwards, Smith expressed regret for striking Rock, describing the entire incident as “fuzzy” in his memory. In an apology video posted to social media, Smith stated, “I’ve reached out to Chris, and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk and when he is, he will reach out. So I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”
As Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 2023 Oscars after Chris Rock declined the job due to the last year incident, he brought back the Will Smith slap while praising Rock for how he handled the matter with Smith. “It’s still shocking that that happened,” Kimmel told a media outlet “To see something like that happen outside of ‘The Maury Povich Show’ is shocking. And then for it to happen at the Oscars magnifies it by about a million times. I mean, to be slapped in the face and to stay that cool is something that Chris should be proud of. Chris’ grandchildren, I hope, will still be proud of that when he’s dead and gone.” Here’s how you can watch the Oscars 2023 on Hulu, if you reside outside the US.
Notwithstanding what happened, Rock and Smith have now moved on and put the issue behind them. Rock may have made the Pelosi attack comparison in fun, but it nonetheless emphasizes the effect that unexpected physical altercations can have on people involved.
