Oscars, anyone watching?

She wasn’t in it, but I thought he talked about her in it

nope. 

Does anyone here want their husband hitting someone to protect them from an insult? Cringe.

My oldest and I are just 2 women with alopecia areata.

Neither of us thought the joke was bad.

I have had some really horrible things said to me about my kids and people have even directed nasty/negative comments to the kids.

Not once have I ever thought to hit someone over their ignorant comment.

I have voiced my opinion and educated persons on their poor choice.

Toxic masculinity is not the answer.

Standing up for your wife (as if she is property) by hitting another is not the answer.

Saying I did it out of love is not the answer (and I want to hug all the peas, women and men who have been in DV relationships as well as peas who were abused physically by their parents).

Ricky G has said a lot worse as have other comedians. Their job is to get a rise out of people. Is it okay? No. BUT hitting because you don't like the joke is never okay.

I am not black and I don't have to struggle with cultural hair issues on top of alopecia. But I am not going to sit down and shut up.

I am going to stick up for those who have been hit out of love.

Will is an ass.

While I agree he behaved like an ass, I don't think he necessarily is one. I actually feel badly for him - I think he behaved impulsively and stupidly, but he has to be known for this for the rest of his life. The best day of is life is now the worst day of his life. 

And I think Chris Rock was going for low-hanging fruit. It was a bad joke - he's better than that. 

Who came out looking best? Denzel Washington (as he should because I love him.) 

I 100% agree about a broader conversation about violence as a response to insult. That affects everyone, especially women.

Like many, my gut reaction to this situation is it's totally wrong and terrible, period. But I quickly saw how most white women seemed to be reacting in the same way and there was a lot more nuance in responses from the Black community - including from the many who think it was very wrong. And that reminded me that things aren't always (for lack of a better term) black and white. That I - and many other white women - lack sufficient context to have a meaningful opinion on the WHOLE of this situation. I can believe violence isn't an appropriate response to a verbal insult while also recognizing I don't understand the full weight of that insult and how it could be more triggering than makes sense to me. And so maybe my opinion, and those of many like me, really just doesn't contribute much of anything to the discourse around this particular situation and sitting on the sidelines and learning is the best course of action at this time. 

If WS had so little emotional control on that day, in that space, in front of his peers and industry leaders .. what’s he like in his private life or on set?

Even if I were Team Will in public, I would think real hard before I did a project with him in the future.

Sure, Chris Rock’s joke about Jada was in poor taste since she has alopecia. But Jada is a beautiful woman, looks great bald, and doesn’t seem to mind ‘going bald’. (You know she can afford the best wigs money can buy if she didn’t want to ‘go bald’.) Will went too far ‘defending’ her. No excuse for assault, especially on live TV.

Was anyone else bothered by the singing and dancing during the "In Memoriam" segment? I thought it was too distracting and out of place. IMO, disrespectful.

That unedited video is difficult to watch - my main takeaways was Will was out of control and creepy.
And I also absolutely do not want a man (or anyone) sticking up for me - that really really bothers me. I can stick up for myself. If I was that pissed I could stand up and yell at him, or get up and leave the venue.

I'm super surprised that this isn't been addressed on the AM shows? Isn't Will doing interviews about winning? and the intervierers are just ignoring what happened? or what? Or Chris or Jada talking about it???


This is going to start a standard. There have been a LOT of nasty jokes before at award ceremonies. A lot. So now it's ok for someone that is hurt to get up and hit the speaker? The academy basically said it was, by not doing anything....

It was very uncomfortable. I couldn't stop thinking about it.  And Jada is not a shrinking violet. She can stand up for herself, so the whole thing is really strange.

I felt bad for Questlove. His win was so overshadowed by what just happened. Will Smith sucked the joy out of the room.

I am just sick and tired of American (I can only speak for here) society where people think that anytime someone disrespects them or their family, gets drunk, or refuses to follow the law, that it is now SOP for them to resort to violence. Don't want to wear a mask? Hit the flight attendant. Don't like how loud your neighbor's music is? Shoot them. Don't like a joke made about your wife? Rush on stage and slap the host.

Chris Rock was lame for making the joke. Will Smith is a man who lacks self control and shown himself to be a bully. Violence is never the answer unless it is for personal protection. It makes me so angry that now person-to-person violence is seen as an acceptable means of problem solving. 

I saw a little of that but I assume those people haven’t watched the full video. When you just see a short clip of Will slapping Chris and Immediately after, it is hard to know if it is real. It seemed that the people in the audience were confused as well based on the expressions of the people close to Will, as well as the cheering or laughing from the audience.

Yes. Chris wasn’t joking about nappy hair or weaves. He was joking about a specific woman’s baldness. I agree it was crass, but it has nothing to do with blackness. He’d probably use the same joke if Jada was white.

As to Will’s reaction, IMO, it was uncalled for. Seriously, he and his wife had never been insulted before? It’s freakin’ Hollywood. How would they have survived if they didn’t have thick skin? Sheesh, Will and Jada have publicly written and spoken about the very intimate details of their sex lives to a cringe-worthy degree that one wishes they’d just shut up already. He was initially chuckling at Chris’ joke!

“Sometimes sh!t happens.” No. If sh!t happens, one needs to be a civilized human being and deal with it in a civilized manner, not with aggression and violence. His cleansing the act of violence against Chris as his love for Jada writ large is simply perverse. Overprivileged Hollywood celebs who can’t muster the discipline to behave themselves properly in a venue such as a public awards show should just stay the hell home.

This sucked all the joy out of a year when there were many acknowledged achievements by the commonly ignored in the film industry.