By Cynthia Akande
Nearly a year after the infamous Oscar slap, American actor, Chris Rock has finally spoken about the incident that took place at the 2022 Oscars live award show.
Fellow American actor, Will Smith had slapped Rock at the 2022 Oscar’s for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Although Smith had since apologized for his actions, this is the first time Rock is speaking at length about the issue.
Rock decided to address the issue during his live Netflix special, “Selective Outrage”.
The 58- year-old comedian launched into the segment this way…“You all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Shug Smith, everybody knows, everybody f–king knows. I got smacked like a year ago… And people are like ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts. I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.”
He then went on to say he didn’t play the victim card because he wasn’t.
“I’m not a victim baby, you will never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying. You will never see it…. It’s never going to happen. F–k that s–t, I took that s–t like Pacquiao” — a reference to boxer Manny Pacquiao.
Rock also compared his situation with Smith to David and Goliath. He said Smith was a lot bigger than him and even played Muhammad Ali in a movie. “You think I auditioned for that? I played Pookie in ‘New Jack City.’ I played a piece of corn in ‘Pootie Tang,'” Rock joked.
Then Rock skewered Smith’s wife, Jada, accusing her of doing something “f–king lowdown” by having an affair with her son’s friend — and then discussing it with her husband on her Red Table Talk.
Rock said, “We’ve all been cheated on, everybody in here been cheated on. None of us has ever been interviewed by the person who cheated on us on television… Why the f–k would you do that s–t? She hurt [Will] way more than he hurt me.”
Rock also explained why he didn’t strike Smith back, “because I’ve got parents! And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people!”
Rock wrapped it up with…“They say, ‘words hurt.’ You gotta watch what you say because ‘words hurt.’ Anybody who says ‘words hurt’ has never been punched in the face.”
