Will Smith's "Slap" has lasted a few news cycles, and will last more. We've gone from the 2022 Oscars to SlapFest 2022!
Background
I should be working on posts for Cub Finance (CUB) or PolyCub (POLYCUB). However, while responding to a post by @goddesseva I did it again. @the-bitcoin-dood knows what I'm talking about! So just as I did for him, I will do for her. What was going to be my comment to @goddesseva has been turned into a post for everyone.
From The 2022 Oscars to SlapFest 2022!
The Academy Awards were presented on Sunday. It's Thursday as I write this post. "The Slap" was a big enough deal to last several news cycles, and it will last many more. However, the incident leaves more questions than answers. While we won't get to the bottom of more pressing matters such as a prelude to World War 3, soaring inflation, overreactions to that thing called COVID-19, and corruption at the highest level of government, we will sooner or later get to the bottom of what took place at what I will call SlapFest 2022.
What We Saw at SlapFest 2022
- Chris Rock was on stage.
- Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith were in the audience close to the stage.
- Rock made some jokes.
- The audience was laughing at them.
- Rock made a joke about Mrs. Smith's appearance.
- Smith was seen laughing out loud with the rest of the audience.
- Mrs. Smith was seen with a pained look on her face.
- Rock continued with the jokes.
- Smith left his table to approach Rock.
- Rock couldn't believe what was happening.
- Smith stopped at Rock.
- Smith slapped Rock.
- Rock was taken aback.
- Smith returned to his table.
- Rock joked about the slap he received.
- Smith let the expletives fly.
- Rock said he would stop joking about Mrs. Smith.
We don't know what happened when the camera wasn't on these 3 people, but the 17 events listed above can be verified.
It's safe to say that everyone who saw the event either live or on tape later couldn't believe they were watching what the video was showing. It's safe to say that most people believe what took place actually happened. But was it actually a genuine event, or was it staged? Maybe I'm in the minority in taking this position, but I believe it was staged. Below I state why.
From Laughter to Anger in No Time Flat
Go back to the audience laughing at Rock's jokes. Smith was seen laughing hard at them. When Rock made his "G.I. Jane 2" joke referring to Mrs. Smith, Smith was seen LOL-ing at it. There was truth in that joke, and Smith had to admit it was funny at that moment. So why the change to offended husband? It's not as if Smith was the target and victim of a "Deez Nuts!" joke.
Mrs. Smith's Observed Reaction
At the time of the joke, Mrs. Smith can be seen slowly shaking her head in disapproval even as Smith was LOL-ing. It came out shortly after SlapFest 2022 that Smith thought Rock was joking about Mrs. Smith having some form of alopecia-related hair loss. Rock said he didn't know about it; had he known, he would not have made that sort of joke; this detail I believe.
While alopecia itself is no laughing matter, someone who has accepted this condition as a part of her (or his) being would have found humor in Rock's joke; let's remember that it was also a callback to Demi Moore's iconic character in the 1997 movie G.I. Jane.
But did Mrs Smith really have a problem with Rock's joke about her shaved head? A 29 March 2022 article at Prevention.com indicates that she had no problem with looking bald, and the article refers to a TikTok video Mrs. Smith had made before the 2022 Oscars. Before even reaching the article body, the article presents this blurb attributed to Mrs. Smith herself:
“I don’t give two craps what people think about this bald head of mine, because guess what? I love it.”
Some women do look beautiful when bald (such as the Deltan character Ilia from Star Trek: The Motion Picture {1979}), so I wasn't surprised she would say that. After all, beauty comes in many forms, shapes, and styles.
So if she was OK enough with her new look to upload a video about it, before the big event, why would she be annoyed when she heard a joke about her appearance during the event?
If we go by that quote from above, it makes sense to say that she had accepted her condition to the point where she can joke about it. So if she can joke about it, why not Rock?
I'm just asking questions.
The Moment We Don't See
We see Smith LOL-ing at Rock's joke. We see Mrs. Smith shaking her head slowly in disapproval. What we don't see is Smith going from LOL-ing to displaying righteous indignation. What could have caused that sudden change in behavior:
- Was that transition swift?
- Did he think to himself "!@#$ What am I doing?"
- Was he prompted to to take the stage?
- Did the transition look genuine?
Without video showing this moment, we don't know what happened; so we can't guess any motives. Given that The Oscars is televised worldwide, there must be some video feed somewhere showing this moment, even if the American feed never covered that moment. Perhaps an enterprising independent journalist who covers the entertainment industry captured this moment on mobile phone video: I don't know.
SlapFest 2022
This is the moment we see Smith walk to the stage, do his thing, walk back to his table close to the stage, and hurl expletives at Rock.
It's safe to say that no one from the audience is allowed to approach the stage unless specifically invited to do so by the performer. No such invitation was extended or offered, therefore Smith violated rules of etiquette at the very least.
What Happened Next
Wednesday 30 March 2022-- 3 days after SlapFest 2022-- it came out that Security went to Will Smith to ask him to leave after his "slap" and Will Smith refused and that was that.
What SHOULD HAVE Happened Next
What kind of Security is this, pre-schoolers wearing uniform caps backwards? The actor was not in a position to "refuse" to leave: he committed-- at the very least-- a breach of Academy etiquette if not an outright criminal act. If he didn't want to leave, he should have been carried away like a sack of potatoes or a slab of frozen meat like what Sylvester Stallone as boxer Rocky Balboa (like Smith, another Philadelphia kid {even if fictional}) used to beat up for training.
Criminal or not, Security should have approached Smith to eject him from the event or facility. Had any of us done what Smith did, that is what would have happened. It doesn't matter that Will Smith is Will Smith, and it doesn't matter that many people present happen to be considered among society's elite class; misconduct needs to be penalized, not rewarded.
Yet Smith was allowed to stay as if nothing happened.
This alone opens SlapFest 2022 to questioning, and that may be the idea: to keep the buzz going and keep us distracted from things we truly care about.
Definding Honor-- or "Defending Honor" ?
As for the audience, I can understand the applause: they thought he was doing the right thing in "defending the honor" of his wife. What did the audience know? While defending the honor of your other half is to be commended, violence did not need to occur (especially at an event where supposedly civilized people were in attendance).
Should Smith have made a scene and made a spectacle of himself? Maybe; I'm not in his head, so I can't say.
Should he have made physical contact? No. As late as 2020 that would have been the case. Since then, the world has lost its senses.
2 Points To Remember
These points were made earlier, but it's important to present them again:
- Smith was seen-- on video-- laughing along with the rest of the audience. As he was laughing, his wife-- also on video-- was shaking her head.
- Prior to the 2022 Oscars, Mrs. Smith revealed in a TikTok video that she had shaved her head because of her medical condition and she thought she looked beautiful with her head shaved.
Teaching Impressionable Youth the Wrong Lesson
Smith acted as if he himself was the target of a "Deez Nuts!" joke. Sometimes these jokes are truly funny even in tasteless ways. However, sometimes these jokes are deliberate insults to a man's sense of manhood. Context is vital to determine which situation occurred.
More importantly, by doing what he did, Smith made it OK for anyone to go on stage to punch out comedians who make jokes they don't like, or singers who preach politics out of synch with their audience, or lecturers restating timeless truth to brainwashed college students.
(It's also wrong for performers to go into the stands or audience to mete out justice to fans who go too far in expressing displeasure at a performance. If you follow the National Basketball Association or the National Hockey League, you know what I'm talking about.)
This is where we have arrived as a culture.
What about Chris Rock?
Rock was doing his job-- making jokes relevant to the celebration the the 2022 Academy Awards to keep the audience entertained. He didn't even say Mrs Smith was ugly for being bald, although the joke referred to a hypothetical sequel to a movie which didn't do so well at the box office originally; maybe that was the perceived insult?
Let's remember that the true victim of SlapFest 2022 was Chris Rock. While some number of people took offense to the joke-- especially among the hypersensitive crowd prone to call for cancellation-- only Chris Rock sustained physical violence.
Or did he?
Kayfabe Come To Life
In [professional wrestling], kayfabe (pronounced KAY-fayb; IPA: Template:IPA) refers to the portrayal of events within the industry as real, that is the portrayal of professional wrestling as not staged or worked. Referring to events as kayfabe means that they are worked events, and/or part of a wrestling storyline. In relative terms, a wrestler breaking kayfabe during a show would be likened to an actor breaking character on camera.
(Link and emphasis in original post)
The moment I saw "The Slap" I thought the event was staged. It had a professional wrestling feel to it. Everything else which followed seemed (to me) to be part of the act between these men. Given Smith's physicality, Chris Rock should have ended up on the floor or sliding backwards, yet he stood in place as if he received a love tap. Rock was smiling throughout the incident, too. The audience reacted as if this was staged, but only later heard that had "really" happened. Now poor Rock has to continue for the rest of his life explaining his side of the incident as if it was real.
SlapFest 2022 will be accepted by most people as a genuine display of anger and righteous indignation. However, to a few people, it seems like kayfabe come to life. It would also be the safest display of kayfabe in comparison to many news stories we've heard about over many years (especially in politics, medicine, and war).
Just My Two Sats
Staged or not, Will Smith should have been ejected from the event. Chris Rock is within his rights to press charges, but he chooses not to do so. Jada Pinkett Smith may look beautiful with a smooth head, but it came at a cost. Meanwhile, an event on track to be the worst-rated Oscars in history gained enough viewers to become the 2nd-worst-rated Oscars in history.
News cycles present SlapFest 2022 as a genuine event. While most people accept this as true, for some of us it feels off.
I don't have proof that SlapFest 2022 was staged, and no one will come to me with definitive proof that it was. So I will continue hearing about SlapFest 2022 as a genuine event. Nevertheless, I have my questions about SlapFest 2022, and most of them appear in this post. As more details are revealed in the news, newer questions will come as a result of the significance of the passage of time.
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