After almost a year, Chris Rock finally spoke about the slap he received from Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars in his new Netflix comedy special, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage.
As reported by Variety, Rock did not immediately speak of the slap, but he was giving little winks throughout the special, including saying, “They say, ‘words hurt.’ Anyone who says ‘words hurt’ has never been punched in the face.” face”.
When he did get to the point, He began by joking that we all know what happened that night. and that “it still hurts.”
“You all know what happened to me, when Suge Smith hit me. Everybody knows. Everybody knows that,” Rock said. “I got hit like a year ago… and people say: ‘Did it hurt?’ Still hurts. I have ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.”
He went on to say that he is not a “victim” and that he will not go on a talk show tour to share his feelings with the world about this.
“I’m not a victim baby,” Rock said. “You’ll never see me on Oprah or Gayle [King] crying. You’ll never see it… It’s never going to happen. Fuck that, I took that shit like [Manny] Pacquiao.”
Also confirmed that, yes, the slap did hurt. After all, as Rock points out, Smith is much bigger than him and once played Muhammad Ali on the big screen.
Will Smith just punched Chris Rock and told him “keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth” pic.twitter.com/1f1ytdbMRv
— CJ Fogler (@cjzer0) March 28, 2022
“Will Smith is significantly bigger than me. We’re not the same size. Will Smith does movies shirtless. You’ve never seen me do a movie shirtless. Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie. Do you think I auditioned for that role? I played Pookie in ‘New Jack City.’ I played a piece of corn in ‘Pootie Tang.'”
Rock went further than the slap and brought up the episode “Red Table Talk” with Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, where they talked about their adventure. Rock brought it up when he said, “Everyone who really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that sh*t. I didn’t have any ‘stuff’.”
“His wife was fucking** his son’s friend. Normally I wouldn’t talk about this sh*t… I have no idea why two talented people would do something so fucked up,” Rock said. “We have all been deceived. Everyone here has been fooled. None of us have ever been interviewed by the person who set us up… on TV. She hurt him a lot more than he hurt me.”
Then he said that tried to talk to Will after the episode aired, but he didn’t answer.
“Everyone in the world called him a b***,” Rock said. “I tried to call the son of a bitch. I tried to call that man and give him my condolences. He didn’t answer me. Everyone called him a bastard and who does he hit? Me.”
Rock then gave Smith some love while also landing one more jab at him.
“I love Will Smith, my whole life…he makes great movies,” Rock said. “I’ve supported Will Smith all my life. I support this motherfucker.” Rock said. “And now I watch ‘Emancipation’ just to see him scream.”
To close, Rock shared why he didn’t try to slap Will back or retaliate in any way.
“Because I have parents,” Rock explained. “They raised me. And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”
This full stand-up special has already been made available on Netflix, which also happened to be the platform’s first live event.
Image Credit: Robyn Beck
