the slap

So people in the public sphere are talking about The Slap at the Academy Awards on Sunday, when presenter Chris Rock made a tasteless joke about Jada Pinkett Smith - wife of Will Smith, Best Actor nominee (and, later in the evening, winner) - having lost her hair. And Will, having apparently originally thought it was funny, caught the distressed look on Jada's face and decided to do the Really Macho Husband thing, walked up on stage and socked Rock in the kisser.

At this point the sound cut out on the U.S. show, but a very revealing verbal exchange between the two was captured by other broadcasters, revealed in a Twitter feed embedded in this article. Here's what they said:

Rock: Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me.
Smith (who by this time has returned to his seat): Keep my wife's name out your fuckin' mouth.
Rock: Wow, dude.
Smith: Yes.
Rock: It was a G.I. Jane joke.
Smith: Keep my wife's name ... out ... your ... fuckin' ... mouth!
Rock: I'm going to. OK?

Here's my thoughts:

1) From the audience gasp at Will's first statement, this may have been their realization of why he did it.
2) Note Chris Rock's defense. He thinks that comparing Jada's current disease-caused shaven head with the cropped hair of a female military officer in a half-forgotten old movie is a joke about the movie? Dude, that's fucked up.
3) Will, probably from stress, is not clear. What he means is "Don't make crude jokes about my wife." But what he says is, "Don't mention her name." At all. And when challenged he just repeats the same words.

I have to say, though, this wasn't the most distressful moment of the ceremony for me. Part of it was that I've never seen any of Chris Rock's movies; I wasn't exactly sure who he is, so that it was him who got slapped didn't mean anything to me. (But then, this was The Evening Of The Presenters I'd Never Heard Of.)

No, the most distressful moment for me was, after much earlier having promised the first live performance of "We Don't Talk About Bruno" (it wasn't: one of the many cover versions on YouTube is live and uncut) and they cut the lyrics and turned it into an Oscars pitch song. Feh.

You know, it would have been a lot better if Will Smith had gone up, refrained from hitting, grabbed the microphone, and sung "We Don't Talk About Jada." A better reaction, and a better parody song.