Why Will Smith Bears Some Responsibility For Chris Rock’s Jokes

The 2022 Oscars, according to Chris Rock, is the greatest night in the history of television… and it was all thanks to Will Smith slapping him on live TV for delivering a joke about his wife.

The joke poked fun at Jada Pinkett-Smith’s shaved head. Rock made a joke, suggesting she would be starring in G.I. Jane II, referring to the lead character in G.I. Jane, a 1998 movie in which Demi Moore plays a Navy SEAL candidate in training. In that movie, Moore famously had her head shaved.

Smith seemed to think the joke was specifically making fun of his wife’s alopecia, a condition Pinkett-Smith suffers from, which causes hair loss. Rock later claimed he didn’t know she had this condition and was just “riffing” based on her appearance that night.

After the joke, Smith walked onto the stage and slapped Rock across the face. Rock attempted to play it off as best he could, while Smith returned to his seat and yelled out twice: “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!”

While many condemned Smith’s violent response, others have defended him for protecting his wife from verbal attacks and placed the blame more on Rock’s unacceptable joke about Pinkett-Smith.

This incident reignited an ongoing social debate about comedians’ material, free speech, and canceling stand-up comics that woke America deems racist, sexist, homophobic, or inappropriate to an unacceptable degree.

It also sparked a new debate about what’s an appropriate response when a comedian says something that offends others.

Since the incident, both Smith and Rock have apologized to each other.

There are two competing factors within the greater context of this issue. What happened at the Oscars is a microcosm of a larger debate and it illustrates how a joke or comedy bit often requires two parties to exist. Yes, Rock said the joke, and many more about the Smith family over the years, but Smith and his family also gave him the material to work with.

Let’s look at these two factors.

The first factor is the debate about the material of stand-up comics. They write jokes and bits… some of which are often deemed inappropriate or flat-out unacceptable. We saw that at the Oscars.

A few folks feel that no one should ever be made fun of at any time, for anything, for any reason, no matter who is saying it, professional comedian or otherwise. For them, any arguments supporting comedians, or the art of stand-up comedy, are dead and invalid.

For others, they do not see comedians as being just folks that “say mean things because they have nothing else to say or to get cheap laughs,” but rather see stand-up comedy as an integral part of social commentary and an essential fabric that holds us together with laughter. Humor, to them, is the uncomfortable bridge that collectively allows us to lower the pressure and intensity of living together on this absurd planet. They claim it brings us together by exposing the ludicrousness of being human, which we all are, regardless of who you are.

The second factor is about one’s decision to enter fields of work that put them into the larger public conscience knowing that a high-profile job, be it acting, music, social influencing, sports, or politics, will open them up to public scrutiny and criticism.

We all know that those in the public sphere are always going to become subjects for conversation, praise, criticism, news and, for comedians, comedic material.

Will Smith knows this. He specifically talked about it during his Oscar acceptance speech. Smith said, to do what we do, you have to endure abuse, people talking crazy about you, and you have to smile and pretend like that’s okay. Just like any athlete, musician, social media influencer, and politician with a high profile, you know when you go into these professions, this is going to happen.

Smith is not only one of the biggest entertainers in the world simply for his work, he also has added to this fire by voluntarily exposing excessive amounts of his personal and family life, with each member of said family also joining in and opening their personal lives up to the entire world.

The family has built an oddly wide-open public image and they put their entire lives, including very personal family issues and topics, out into the public, which has drawn even more attention to them, including a lot of criticism. Many folks think they do this for less than altruistic reasons. They have made their family lives a marketable commodity and some feel it’s more for publicity, other tangible gains, or just done out of pure ego.

Now, I’m not saying these are their motives for being so open publicly, but rather just pointing out this is how many folks see the Smith family.

For example, in 2018, Jada Pinkett-Smith, her daughter Willow Smith, and Pinkett-Smith’s mother launched Red Table Talk, a talk show where they spend a lot of time discussing very intimate details about their family, which includes infidelity and other very personal topics that most would normally keep private. Smith appeared on the show with his wife and had a famously awkward conversation about infidelity and their separation.

Many of these episodes come across as… well… uncomfortable.

This follows years of openly allowing the public into their personal lives and providing intimate views into every aspect of their family, from their daily struggles with relationships to how they raised their children. Much of this content was met with disapproval for not just how they live, but also criticism that they put it all out there, and why they would.

Between just being famous and the voluntary exposure of their personal business, this family has given a lot of folks a lot of material to talk about… and Rock is not the only person to roast Smith and his family. They are constant targets of jokes from hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

Does this mean that they deserve to be the butt of jokes by comedians just because they are famous and open about their personal lives?

The answer to that is “no.” They do not deserve that, but very few people really deserve to be mocked by comedians, or anyone else. However, in the eyes of many comedians and their supporters, it has nothing to do with making fun of people. It’s just social observations… and if you pursue a career that puts you in the public light to that level, then voluntarily dump all your personal business out there as well, you’re opening yourself to becoming the subject of social commentary because you are now a huge part of the social fabric.

And Smith has been aware of this since he first broke as a teenager in the 1980s rapping.

How much material has the Smith family given thousands of comedians? If he is so upset with what folks say, why does he continue to give them so much to say?

Smith and his family bear some responsibility for this even happening. Rock didn’t write that joke alone… Smith and his family helped him immensely.

This is the point where our society hits a crossroad as to what is “okay” and “not okay” to say as a comedian. Many feel that Smith being famous and so open about his life, regardless of the motives, isn’t a pass to be disparaging for a laugh, end of story.

At that point, nothing said here will change one’s mind if that’s how they feel. For others, they see stand-up comedy as a relevant and very important piece of our collective social commentary, a complex art form, and a universal way for everyone to laugh at our collective absurdity as humans. Comedy holds a mirror up to all of us and takes no prisoners because we’re all experiencing the same ridiculous and crazy world.

Will Smith and his family are part of that world too and have spent decades raising their public profile for everyone to witness.

Regardless, however, is there a line that cannot be crossed when it comes to stand-up comedy?

Recently, I was at a well-known comedy club and had the opportunity to meet a very popular comedian, who I will keep nameless because I do not have his permission to say his name when it comes to our conversation. We talked about this issue, and he said many comedians use a litmus test to figure out where they stand on crossing lines.

The test is to simply ask oneself a question: “Can you do a bit about 9/11 the day after 9/11 happened?” If you say no, then there are lines you believe cannot be crossed. If you say yes, then you believe it’s okay to attempt to create comedy bits about anything and believe it’s possible to pull it off successfully.

He said it’s not about the bit’s subject or when you do the bit live on stage, but rather being acutely aware of who you are, who the audience is, how one sets up the bit, how one unpacks the bit, how one discusses the subject, how it’s delivered, what point the comedian is trying to convey, and how quickly they can respond to the audience’s reaction with wit.

This is, at its core, the true art of stand-up comedy. How funny, unfunny, or offensive a bit may be depends on the comedian’s skill to write, refine and deliver the bit poignantly, as well as how he/she can get the audience to see it from his/her perspective through the humor.

He told me the story of a comedian named Ahmed Ahmed, who took the stage the Friday following 9/11 at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. Ahmed got up on stage, introduced himself, and opened by simply saying: “I had nothing to do with it, so please don’t follow me to my car after the show.”

The audience laughed.

For Rock, the question is did he pull off the joke at the 2022 Oscars? Personally, I found the joke to be pedestrian and not terribly humorous. Not because the joke couldn’t be funny, but rather because of everything mentioned above. It was weak, poorly executed, and the joke was forgettable.

However, Will Smith and his family bear some responsibility for this too. Rock’s job is to do exactly what he did that night. What Smith did that night was embarrassing on the highest level and will forever tarnish the biggest night of his career. If Smith hates what comedians say about him or his family, he needs to look into the mirror and ask himself why comedians have the material to work with in the first place?