Slaphappy

not the Smiths

I had a topic in mind for this week, but didn't get to it early enough, and it turns out that it's a bit too ambitious to bring together in time for today.

Instead, I'll go for the low-hanging fruit and spew out a few thoughts on the Will Smith/Chris Rock thing that's all over the Internet right now.

Actually, there are so many facets that we could talk about as far as this story goes. Everything from principles of freedom to tell jokes, being offended, how to handle conflict and how not to, the psychology behind this kind of thing, the culture of celebrity…it's endless. Maybe I'll just give a few bullet points and hit as many of my thoughts on the matter as I can think of.


- Who's right and who's wrong? To me, Chris Rock was completely in the right and Will Smith completely in the wrong here. People could argue about the joke itself, and whether it was funny or not, or nasty or not, but it doesn't matter. There is a principle here, I think. Jokes…words and ideas…should not be countered with violence.


- From what I've seen, there is a small but significant number of people who are insisting this was a fake display, done to bolster the Oscar's ratings or people's careers or to generate attention and headlines. To my eye, this did not look fake at all. I mean, you never know I guess, but this looked like a genuine moment to me. I'm surprised how many people I've seen claiming it was fake.

Granted, I believed the Andy Kaufman/Jerry Lawler scrap was real on the Letterman show, until years later when it was revealed to be a big show. You never know. But I'd be very, VERY surprised if this turned out to be a put-on.

-Will Smith's apology was a bit misleading. He did not have an emotional reaction to the joke about his wife's condition. He was laughing at the joke (which is another subject…that joke was not funny at all). He had an emotional reaction to Jada's reaction.


still not the smiths

I'm not married, but this just doesn't seem right to me. I mean, caring about and protecting your wife, of course! But in this kind of situation…? Married people, let me know - was his reaction the right thing to do on any level?

- Forgive me for playing psychologist, but this suggests to me that Will Smith is not happy. He is struggling I think. He's under pressure. I've heard some of the talk about his personal life and marriage since this incident. I have no idea about the truth of any of that. But to me, a contented or happy person probably doesn't have this kind of outburst. And for what it's worth (probably nothing), I wish him well.

- Chris Rock kept his composure amazingly well in that situation. He might be the only one who comes out of this looking good. He's a standup comic, so he's surely a pretty tough guy, emotionally. I don't know much about him either, but apparently he had a hard background. Maybe that allowed him to keep it together.



not chris rock


- I'm blurting out my opinions on this, mostly because I have a Newspost to do. But of course, I don't know any of these people personally. I don't know their lives, the pressures they're under, or anything about them, really. I knew nothing about the Smith's marriage, the history between the Smiths and Rock, or Jada Pinkett Smith's condition. And I'm sounding off about this, and having a little fun with it - but I am remembering that these are human beings, dealing with things I have no clue about. No judgments. Well, maybe a bit. But just about this event. And this one event doesn't come close to defining a human being.


Anyway, I'm sick of myself. Time to go.

Take care and talk to you next week!

-Banes