As we approach the first anniversary of the infamous Oscars “Slapgate” incident between host and comedian Chris Rock and actor Will Smith, the former has taken to the stage to get his revenge in comedy form. The roast occurred during Rock’s history-making show Selective Outrage, which headlined the first-ever live broadcast on Netflix.
Naturally, much of Rock’s stand-up material for the evening alluded to the incident. “They say, ‘words hurt.’ Anybody who says ‘words hurt’ has never been punched in the face,” he joked early on. Eventually, Rock addressed the aftermath of the slap from Oscar-winner Will Smith.
“You all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith. Everybody knows. Everybody fucking knows,” Rock said. “I got smacked like a year ago… and people are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts. I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.”
“I’m not a victim, baby,” he claimed. “You will never see me on Oprah or Gayle [King] crying. You will never see it… It’s never going to happen. Fuck that shit; I took that shit like [Manny] Pacquiao.”
Addressing whether it hurt, Rock added: “Will Smith is significantly bigger than me. We are not the same size. Will Smith does movies with his shirt off. You’ve never seen me do a movie with my shirt off. Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie. You think I auditioned for that part? I played Pookie in New Jack City. I played a piece of corn in Pootie Tang.”
Later, Rock revealed that the title of his show was also inspired by the slap. “Will Smith practices Selective Outrage,” Rock explained. “Everybody who really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that shit. I didn’t have any ‘entanglements.'”
Here, Rock was referring to the infamous Red Bubble Talk episode featuring Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, in which she admitted to having an affair behind her husband’s back.
“His wife was fucking her son’s friend. I normally would not talk about this shit… I have no idea why two talented people would do something that fucking lowdown. We’ve all been cheated on. Everybody in here been cheated on. None of us has ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us… on television. She hurt him way more than he hurt me.”
Rock then revealed that he had tried to contact Smith after the episode aired.
“Everybody in the world called him a bitch. I tried to call the motherfucker. I tried to call that man and give him my condolences. He didn’t pick up for me.” He listed: The View, The Talk, The Breakfast Club, and Drink Champs among the outlets to call Smith a bitch following the interview. “Everybody called him a bitch, and who does he hit? Me,” Rock exclaimed.
According to Rock, the feud between himself and the Smiths went back to the 2016 Oscars, which he also hosted. That year, Pinkett Smith urged a boycott due to a lack of diversity across the nominations. “She fucking said [I] should quit because Will didn’t get nominated for Concussion. What the fuck? So then I do some jokes about it. Who gives a fuck? That’s how it is. She started it. I finished it. Nobody’s picking on this bitch. She started this shit. Nobody was picking on her.”
Rock later changed his tone to assert that he had always been a fan of Smith, which made the incident even harder to swallow. “I love Will Smith, my whole life… he makes great movies,” he said. “I have rooted for Will Smith my whole life. I root for this motherfucker. And now I watch Emancipation just to see him get whooped.”
Asking himself why he didn’t retaliate at the time, Rock joked: “Because I got parents. I was raised. And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”
See clips from Chris Rock’s Selective Outrage below.
