Chris Rock versus Will Smith

[VoidCat]

Lol, not from that slap.

Just saying a slap can kill someone. By causing the head to turn that violently and that quickly you can rupture an artery. And even if that doesn't happen the other person can lose balance and hit their head against something causing damage to the skull or to the brain. Both can lead to the person's death.

Even if that slap wasn't strong enough it could kill someone, a slap could do so. So it's not a good idea to allow folk to slap people over just an insult.

 

[Revoltingest]

C'mon folks, surely you are all not so dumbed down by the 'box' that you were not aware that everything was staged.

A conspiracy, eh.
It's a pretty elaborate one, since it's still
running, & involves thousands of celebrities.

 

[SkepticThinker]

I agree. The context is important. If the setting was the usual audience for a stand-up routine, that's one thing, or maybe the typical 'roast', where the insults are expected. This was neither and I can only think that Chris Rock was not aware of Will's wife's affliction. Otherwise it is no more than bullying for a cheap laugh.

Awards shows like these typically do involve some level of roasting from their hosts. Does anyone remember Rick Gervais hosting the Golden Globes?

I honestly don't think Chris Rock had any kind of malicious intent behind his joke. At least, it doesn't appear that way to me. I think he saw an opportunity for a joke and grabbed it. which I'm sure he realizes now that it was insensitive, that's for sure. The whole thing could and should have been handled totally differently without physical violence being brought into it.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Just saying a slap can kill someone. By causing the head to turn that violently and that quickly you can rupture an artery. And even if that doesn't happen the other person can lose balance and hit their head against something causing damage to the skull or to the brain. Both can lead to the person's death.

Even if that slap wasn't strong enough it could kill someone, a slap could do so. So it's not a good idea to allow folk to slap people over just an insult.

I got hit harder by my sister when I was about six I'm sure.
I never died from it. The whole thing has been way overblown. People saying what if he has a gun? Seriously?
He wasn't trying to inflict damage or if he was he sucks at it.

 

[VoidCat]

I got hit harder by my sister when I was about six I'm sure.
I never died from it. The whole thing has been way overblown. People saying what if he has a gun? Seriously?
He wasn't trying to inflict damage or if he was he sucks at it.

And? Still not right to inflict pain on another just for an insult.

 

[Wildswanderer]

And? Still not right to inflict pain on another just for an insult.

So? It's still way overblown.
Worse stuff happens every day in these people's lives. Just because this was public everyone has to give their opinion on it.

 

[SkepticThinker]

I got hit harder by my sister when I was about six I'm sure.
I never died from it. The whole thing has been way overblown. People saying what if he has a gun? Seriously?
He wasn't trying to inflict damage or if he was he sucks at it.

When I was a kid, two of my friends were playing around and one pushed the other "lightly." That guy went down right on top of a glass coffee table, which then shattered, with a giant shard cutting right into his main artery. Despite being rushed to the hospital, he had already lost too much blood and died. Never will I ever forget how a "small" push can kill a person.

Let's stop making light of physical violence. And let's not normalize reacting to words with violence either, no matter how "sissy" the violence may be. Grow up, be an adult, and use your words. You know, like we teach young children to do.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Awards shows like these typically do involve some level of roasting from their hosts. Does anyone remember Rick Gervais hosting the Golden Globes?

I honestly don't think Chris Rock had any kind of malicious intent behind his joke. At least, it doesn't appear that way to me. I think he saw an opportunity for a joke and grabbed it. which I'm sure he realizes now that it was insensitive, that's for sure. The whole thing could and should have been handled totally differently without physical violence being brought into it.

It reminds me a bit of another joke that fell flat: David Letterman's cringey "Uma... Oprah" joke at the 1995 Oscars.

David Letterman Reflects on Hosting the ‘Oprah-Uma’ Oscars in 1995 – The Hollywood Reporter

In Chris Rock's case, the core of the joke seems to be just calling attention to the fact that Jada Pinkett is now a bald woman. In Letterman's case, the joke seemed to be just that there were people in the audience with names that sounded odd to him, a white WASPy American.

In both cases, the joke failed the basic rule of comedy of "don't punch down," and it seems to me that both comedians were probably oblivious to the fact that they were punching at all.

 

[Wildswanderer]

When I was a kid, two of my friends were playing around and one pushed the other "lightly." That guy went down right on top of a glass coffee table, which then shattered, with a giant shard cutting right into his main artery. Despite being rushed to the hospital, he had already lost too much blood and died. Never will I ever forget how a "small" push can kill a person.

Let's stop making light of physical violence. And let's not normalize reacting to words with violence either, no matter how "sissy" the violence may be. Grow up, be an adult, and use your words. You know, like we teach young children to do.

So use verbal abuse instead? That's already rampant in our culture. The reason people will cuss you to your face is because they know you aren't allowed to pop them for it.
The threat of violence created a more polite culture. When you could challenge someone to a duel or fisticuffs they thought twice before insulting your wife I bet.

 

[Revoltingest]

I got hit harder by my sister when I was about six I'm sure.
I never died from it. The whole thing has been way overblown. People saying what if he has a gun? Seriously?
He wasn't trying to inflict damage or if he was he sucks at it.

Slapping is violence-lite that's about dominating & denigrating
another person rather than injury. Still...it is illegal.

Example...

 

[VoidCat]

So use verbal abuse instead? That's already rampant in our culture. The reason people will cuss you to your face is because they know you aren't allowed to pop them for it.
The threat of violence created a more polite culture. When you could challenge someone to a duel or fisticuffs they thought twice before insulting your wife I bet.

Who said anything about verbal abuse?

You could just talk things out like an adult

 

[SkepticThinker]

So use verbal abuse instead?

LOL No.

"Use your words" means express yourself to tell the other person how you feel with words. You know, like have an honest discussion about how the person's words made you feel in some attempt to enlighten them. Is this a foreign concept to you?

That's already rampant in our culture. The reason people will cuss you to your face is because they know you aren't allowed to pop them for it.

Cussing is still just words. Do you teach your kids to just start throwing punches whenever they hear something they don't like? That's seriously the kind of society you want to live in? I sure don't.

The threat of violence created a more polite culture. When you could challenge someone to a duel or fisticuffs they thought twice before insulting your wife I bet.

What a bizarre couple of statements.

You advocate for more violence. And claim it makes culture "more polite." Wow.

 

[Debater Slayer]

I know that "prudery" is a limited term.
But I picked it because "PC" is so over-used.
We shall see how comedy evolves.

BTW, Chris Rock's latest tour appears to
have increased demand after the slap.
This suggests approval of his comic style.
Chris Rock Greeted With Standing Ovation At First Show After Oscars Slap – Deadline

Polarizing and controversial incidents involving celebrities often generate free publicity. This is nothing new or surprising; I'm sure both Chris Rock and Will Smith will continue to have many fans after (and despite) what happened.

 

[Revoltingest]

Polarizing and controversial incidents involving celebrities often generate free publicity. This is nothing new or surprising; I'm sure both Chris Rock and Will Smith will continue to have many fans after (and despite) what happened.

At the moment though, Rock's stock
is rising, while Smith's has fallen.

 

[Debater Slayer]

At the moment though, Rock's stock
is rising, while Smith's has fallen.

Such a thing is quite hard to measure. Will Smith's Instagram account gained hundreds of thousands of followers shortly after the incident. He also got two standing ovations at the Oscars right after the slap took place.

Besides, the point is that despite still being popular among many, comedy that indiscriminately mocks things like illnesses and traumatic experiences now faces much more opposition than it did a few decades ago. There's a reason even older cartoons like Tom and Jerry no longer just get a free pass for their racist elements because "it's just a joke." Things are way too different now for stuff like that to go unchecked like before.

 

[Revoltingest]

S He also got two standing ovations at the Oscars right after the slap took place.

That speaks to the moral depravity of actors.
The audience is another matter.

Besides, the point is that despite still being popular among many, comedy that indiscriminately mocks things like illnesses and traumatic experiences now faces much more opposition than it did a few decades ago. There's a reason even older cartoons like Tom and Jerry no longer just get a free pass for their racist elements because "it's just a joke." Things are way too different now for stuff like that to go unchecked like before.

The PC crowd has long had some success banning Betty
Boop, Amos'n Andy, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
To Kill A Mockingbird, Lenny Bruce, etc, etc. But they've
not taken over. Current cancel culture efforts notwithstanding,
I predict the survival of edgy comedy skewering people &
sacred cows.

 

[Debater Slayer]

That speaks to the moral depravity of actors.
The audience is another matter.

Audiences are quite varied, and I'm sure there are morally questionable individuals there too.

Actors are mostly just regular folks who made it big.

The PC crowd has long had some success banning Betty
Boop, Amos'n Andy, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
To Kill A Mockingbird, Lenny Bruce, etc, etc. But they've
not taken over. Current cancel culture efforts notwithstanding,
I predict the survival of edgy comedy skewering people &
sacred cows.

I don't think edgy comedy is going away as long as humans exist. We're too diverse, and some simply thrive on provocation and offense.

Still, the areas in which it is commonly acceptable to be edgy are changing. I think chalking up this social evolution to "cancel culture" oversimplifies the factors involved in shifting perceptions of what is or isn't acceptable. We now know a lot more about trauma and certain illnesses than we did decades ago, among other factors.

 

[Revoltingest]

Actors are mostly just regular folks who made it big.

At which point many become irregular.

I don't think edgy comedy is going away as long as humans exist. We're too diverse, and some simply thrive on provocation and offense.

Still, the areas in which it is commonly acceptable to be edgy are changing. I think chalking up this social evolution to "cancel culture" oversimplifies the factors involved in shifting perceptions of what is or isn't acceptable. We now know a lot more about trauma and certain illnesses than we did decades ago, among other factors.

I don't think it's over-simplification to see the nascent
obsession with censoring "triggering" topics as being
an integral part of cancel culture.

 

[Debater Slayer]

I don't think it's over-simplification to see the nascent
obsession with censoring "triggering" topics as being
an integral part of cancel culture.

I have only seen very few people advocate for censoring specific kinds of comedy outside of private entities, and those have always had the right to censor content on their platforms anyway.

Previous decades had far more cancel culture than whatever "cancellation" some people complain about now. LGBT people, women, atheists, Black people, communists... and the list goes on. Heck, at one point, supporting interracial marriage could get you canceled or, worse yet, legally penalized. That was sometimes on a state level, too, not merely by some private entity like Spotify or Netflix.

I think I'll pick our current time over previous eras, flawed as it may be. Things seem to me to be improving overall.

 

[Wildswanderer]

You advocate for more violence. And claim it makes culture "more polite." Wow.

No you have it backwards. Apparently you didn't learn anything from 2020. The people who stand up for themselves instead of letting violent people run them over are the ones I respect. Letting people disrespect you and your property and your family leads to them commiting more violence on others.