Chris Rock works material about ‘The Slap’
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been edited and truncated to remove a lot of Chris Rock’s comments onstage last week addressing “The Slap” — so as to not give away too much of what Rock might talk about live on Netflix on March 4. BALTIMORE — Nearly one year after actor Will Smith assaulted comic Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards, the legendary funnyman is finally prepared to discuss the incident known as “Slapgate” — and he’s doing it for one of the first times on a Baltimore stage.
Rock joked for nearly five minutes about The Slap last Friday night, Feb. 17, as he roamed from wing to wing at the Hippodrome Theatre stage, dressed head to toe in white. A reporter for The Baltimore Sun attended the performance and took notes with a pen and paper.
Though the concert was billed as part of Rock’s “Ego Death Tour,” he appeared to be testing out material for an even bigger stage.
On March 4, Rock’s new comedy special, “Selective Outrage,” will air on Netflix. The entertainment giant’s first live global event also will be streamed from the Hippodrome in Baltimore — and without the seven-second delay typically used to edit out offensive material.
Rock worked The Slap into his stand-up routine as carefully as he worked his other bits: teasing the incident early on, using rhythm and repetition to build comic impact, pitching his voice high and loud to underscore his indignation. The full house of 2,300 fans howled with laughter.
Only in retrospect did the comedian’s hurt and anger peek through beneath his jokes.
“Will Smith practices selective outrage,” Rock began. “People who are in the know, know that [expletive] had nothing to do
with me.”
The attack occurred March 27, 2022, as Rock was presenting the award for best documentary feature. The comedian made a joke about the shaved head of Jada Pinkett Smith, the Baltimore-born actress and hometown favorite who is married to Will Smith.
Pinkett Smith has revealed that she suffers from alopecia, a medical condition that causes hair loss.
“Jada, I love you,” Rock said during the awards presentation, which was broadcast live on ABC to more than 16 million Americans. “‘G.I. Jane II,’ can’t wait to see it, aight?”
Initially, the camera caught Will Smith laughing at Rock’s remarks, though Pinkett Smith appeared pained. Seconds later, Will Smith strode up to the stage and slapped Rock across the face hard enough to make the other man stumble.
Eleven months later, that 40-second exchange continues to resonate to an unusual degree in public broadcasts and on social media. That’s a relative eon in popular culture, where scandals typically go viral, dominate the national conversation for a few days or weeks, and then abruptly vanish.
As recently as Jan. 10, comedic actor Eddie Murphy made a crack about The Slap at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards. Comedian Marlon Wayans reportedly jokes about the incident in “God Loves Me,” his comedy special, which debuts March 2 on HBO Max.
And on Feb. 13, Janet Yang,
president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the Oscars, made a public apology.
“What happened onstage was wholly unacceptable,” Yang said during a luncheon for the 2023 nominees, “and the response from our organization was inadequate.”
Rock told an audience in Arizona last year that he turned down a chance to host the 2023 Oscars, which will be held March 12, likening it to returning to the scene of a crime.
Though Rock has included references to The Slap during the past year as he crisscrossed the nation on his Ego Death Tour, he has kept his remarks brief and superficial.
As the months have passed, commentators nationwide have called on the comic to address the incident more fully. Last week at the Hippodrome, he obliged.
Rock led into the segment by reflecting that in 2023 America, “everyone is claiming to be a victim.”
Everyone, that is, except Rock. The slap might have hurt, but he implied that other men have faced more dangerous adversaries.
“Who gets smacked by Suge Smith?” he asked, making a comical mashup of the names of the actor who sucker-slapped him and the notorious Marion “Suge” Knight Jr., a convicted felon and co-founder of Death Row Records.
“I am not a victim,” Rock said. “I got up and went to work the next day.”