The 94th Academy Awards Winners - Oscars 2022

[Marcel Birgelen]

Looking back at this, I think they should give the The 94th Academy Awards an Oscar during the The 95th Academy Awards for this face-slap scene alone. Will Smith also deserves a special lifetime achievement award for best marketing ever.

[Bobby Henderson]

Will Smith got away with it, if you will, because of race.

No. He got away with it because he is Will Smith: multi-millionaire celebrity movie-star. Lots of black people who aren't celebrities are doing prison time for assault and battery.

[Mark Ogden]

To be clear, Smith only "got away with it" in the sense that he wasn't arrested, and that happened because Rock declined to press charges (he still could, or he could file a civil action). He is still facing a great deal of harsh criticism and censure for his conduct from within both the entertainment industry and black America, and the Academy is still considering its response. I doubt he'll be stripped of his Oscar, but that's apparently still on the table. Doesn't sound like "getting away with it" to me.

[Bobby Henderson]

Actually, it is not a requirement for a victim of physical assault or battery to press charges in order for a District Attorney to go forward with filing criminal charges. The D.A. has his own discretion. They have that option due to cases such as spousal abuse where a sadistic scumbag of a husband beats his wife but the terrorized lady refuses to file any charges. The D.A. can bring the hammer down hard on the husband anyway.

Obviously they're not going to do anything in this particular case since Chris Rock wasn't seriously harmed physically. However the act did look very humiliating for Chris Rock. Now, if Will Smith had punched Chris Rock with a closed fist a few times or even knocked Rock out cold the D.A. would probably be handling the case very differently.

[Leo Enticknap]

At the risk of getting political, the DA in this case would be George Gascón, so I doubt it. His reluctance to prosecute violent crime for political reasons is so bad that when a police officer was murdered in January, the county sheriffs didn't even send the case to him, fearing that he either wouldn't prosecute the gang bangers responsible at all, or only for minor offenses - they sent it to the feds instead.

No, I don't think that the altercation was staged but, since Smith is often seen as a successful member of an oppressed racial group, he gets a pass.

Agreed completely. A more recent example of this is a shooting incident outside a Sacramento nightclub over the weekend, in which six were killed and dozens injured. Within a few hours of it happening, politicians and the media were characterizing it as someone going postal, need to spend more money on mental illness support, need more gun control, etc. etc. A few hours after that, it emerged that actually this was a shootout between rival gangs, in which all the perpetrators and most of the victims were also members of an oppressed racial group. One of those arrested has already been let out on bail! Ever since that became public knowledge, crickets from the politicians and a significant section of the media. It's like this didn't happen.

[Mike Blakesley]

However the act did look very humiliating for Chris Rock.

No it didn't. Humiliating for a couple of seconds maybe, until he said "That was the greatest night in the history of television!" From that instant, Chris Rock came out WAY ahead of everybody else in this incident. He handled it with grace, good humor, and control. (The "control" part might have been because he was so surprised.) Then immediately afterward, demand for his comedy concert tickets shot through the roof and you know the viewership for his next Netflix special will be through the roof as well. His ticket prices will probably go up too. Everybody in his circle is going to benefit from this. I was never really a Chris Rock fan before this happened because I don't like his style of comedy all that much, but I like him more because of the way he handled this, and I came away with much LESS respect for Will Smith.

Some have made a "thing" about Rock's joke being tasteless, but he claims he didn't know about Jada's hair-loss problem. (The media made a big deal about how she has been "vocal" about it, but I'd never heard about it until that night.) Considering lots of women shave their heads these days, often to make a fashion statement, he could have easily assumed that was the case. Even if he did know the circumstances, that joke was beyond mild compared to many of the jokes every single black comedian on the planet makes every day at the expense of white people. If black comedians were suddenly banned from joking about white people, most of them would be out of business. (Not that I don't love a good white-guy joke!)

[Bobby Henderson]

Agreed completely. A more recent example of this is a shooting incident outside a Sacramento nightclub over the weekend, in which six were killed and dozens injured. Within a few hours of it happening, politicians and the media were characterizing it as someone going postal, need to spend more money on mental illness support, need more gun control, etc. etc. A few hours after that, it emerged that actually this was a shootout between rival gangs, in which all the perpetrators and most of the victims were also members of an oppressed racial group. One of those arrested has already been let out on bail! Ever since that became public knowledge, crickets from the politicians and a significant section of the media. It's like this didn't happen.

There's a lot to unpack with that. Of the news coverage I've seen of the shooting in Sacramento I never heard anyone claiming it was a person that had gone postal. There were several other mass shooting incidents the same weekend, as well as terrorist shootings in Israel. The one suspect in the Sacramento shooting that was released posted a bail of $500,000, he was arrested on a weapons charge. The gun he had was not believed to have been used in the shooting. The sarcasm is plainly visible in the phrase "members of an oppressed racial group." I'll just say it is a hell of a lot better to be White in America than it is to be Black. That is an objective fact.

The US does indeed need to invest more in mental health care. The "suck it up, Buttercup" strategy isn't working so well with our nation's rising rates of suicide, homelessness and tradition of self medication via drugs and alcohol.

I'm a gun owner, but I have zero problems with background checks, including background checks at gun shows. I do have a big problem with the BATF sitting on applications for things like suppressors for months, if not years, before processing them. Suppressors were going to be removed from the NFA list in 2017. But thanks to some twinkie who went postal from a Las Vegas hotel room window, murdering 60 people and wounding 411 at a concert below, that "hearing protection act" legislation got flushed.

No it didn't. Humiliating for a couple of seconds maybe, until he said "That was the greatest night in the history of television!" From that instant, Chris Rock came out WAY ahead of everybody else in this incident.

In the culture of toxic masculinity, one grown man slapping another is quite an insult. When I first saw video of the slap it reminded me of a comedy sketch from Dave Chappelle's show on Comedy Central: "Charlie Murphy's True Stories of Hollywood." The sketch was about Rick James slapping Charlie Murphy at a party. James motioned Murphy over and asked, "what did the five fingers say to the face?" Then James slapped him. Murphy was narrating the incident, saying, "First of all, you don't slap a man. Okay? I mean even when slapping was fashionable, and y'know they did it in Paris and a guy would come up (whap-bap), 'I challenge you to a duel!' They had a gunfight after that! Somebody had to go!"

Chris Rock did indeed handle the aftermath in a very professional manner.

I also thought Will Smith did even more to embarrass himself on so many levels. I thought he looked like an absolute coward and bully assaulting somebody like Chris Rock. I don't think Chris Rock is a weakling. Still, Will Smith is a bigger, much more muscular guy. What he did would be like Chris Hemsworth (Thor) slapping David Spade. Then there is the additional angle of Chris Rock having a type of learning disability regarding social cues. Some thought it was pretty ballsy for him to just stand there smiling as Will Smith stormed toward him. Other comedians joked how they would have already been running away in that situation. Rock didn't quite understand what was up until he got hit.

Some have made a "thing" about Rock's joke being tasteless, but he claims he didn't know about Jada's hair-loss problem.

There were multiple dimensions to that bad joke. Jada Pinkett-Smith's battle with alopecia is only one factor. Alopecia or not, why would Chris Rock of all people crack a joke about a black woman's hair? Again, he starred in and co-produced the 2009 documentary Good Hair. Rock knows how serious the topic of hair is with black women.

I personally didn't know much about the topic until I was in a long term relationship with a black woman. They have to invest a lot of time, work and money caring for their hair, even if they choose to wear it natural. Finding a good hair salon isn't easy. If someone goofs up something like a relaxer treatment it could take more than a year to grow back hair that was lost -that is, if it ever grows back.

[Mike Blakesley]

There were multiple dimensions to that bad joke. Jada Pinkett-Smith's battle with alopecia is only one factor. Alopecia or not, why would Chris Rock of all people crack a joke about a black woman's hair? Again, he starred in and co-produced the 2009 documentary Good Hair.

Well, comedians have been poking fun about the way people look for decades. And Chris Rock has long been known as kind of an acerbic comedian (he don't pull no punches). I'm just wondering whatever happened to people's sense of humor these days. Jada could have laughed it off and said "Hey, that's a great idea!" and the situation would have been over. Her "rolling her eyes" and being a pansy about it is the thing that sparked the whole entire incident that's going to wind up costing multiple people (including her husband) millions of dollars, not to mention ruining the event for every single other person in that building.

Before you say I have no basis to say that, I should tell you that I was bullied as a kid and subjected to a lot of comments about my looks (I had "buck teeth" until I got braces) and my mom and dad always raised me to just brush off rude comments and consider the immaturity or bad judgement of the commenter. If everyone who ever got insulted from the Oscar stage protested the way Will Smith did, they would have stopped having a TV show decades ago.

[Bobby Henderson]

Well, comedians have been poking fun about the way people look for decades. And Chris Rock has long been known as kind of an acerbic comedian (he don't pull no punches). I'm just wondering whatever happened to people's sense of humor these days.

Comedians typically make fun of the choices people make, like what they choose to say or the actions they choose to do. Making fun of someone over things they can't help, like something unusual or different with their appearance is just not cool.

Her "rolling her eyes" and being a pansy about it is the thing that sparked the whole entire incident that's going to wind up costing multiple people (including her husband) millions of dollars, not to mention ruining the event for every single other person in that building.

I'm not faulting Jada Pinkett-Smith at all for her eye-rolling reaction to that joke. She has a right to her feelings. And she wasn't the only one who thought the joke was lame. Will Smith has only himself to blame for his actions. I've heard others say if Jada really loved Will Smith she would have stopped him from getting up on stage. I don't agree with that either.

Before you say I have no basis to say that, I should tell you that I was bullied as a kid and subjected to a lot of comments about my looks (I had "buck teeth" until I got braces) and my mom and dad always raised me to just brush off rude comments and consider the immaturity or bad judgement of the commenter.

I got picked on, insulted and beaten up plenty of times when I was a kid. I was really skinny, which other kids read as being weak. Being in a military family we moved around a lot, which made me "the new kid" in a lot of crappy situations. So I know what you're talking about. My cousin Tommy has a big port-wine stain birth mark covering half his face. He grew up having to deal with all kinds of cruel shit from that. My brother's first name is Toby, but he has gone by his middle name, Warren, since he was in high school. That's partly over all kinds of crap he caught thanks to the Roots TV mini-series. Kids were calling him "Kunta Kinte" and using certain other catch-phrases from the series. Kids are well-known for being real assholes to each other. Adults are supposed to behave like adults.

It's one thing getting made fun of on a playground. It's another thing if a comedian is making fun of you when cameras are rolling. I got a little taste of that in 1990 when I was on a MTV game show called Turn It Up. The host had some fun at my expense, but apologized about it off camera during the break, saying you can't pass up some comic opportunities on TV.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Well, the "vote" regarding Will Smith is out: He got banned from all academy events and lost his right to vote for 10 years. I'm not sure if that also disqualifies him from competition for an academy award in that time period.

[Mike Blakesley]

It does not. He can still be nominated for Oscars.

I guess he could also go back and make another Fresh Prince album. He isn't banned from the Grammys, after all.

Making fun of someone over things they can't help, like something unusual or different with their appearance is just not cool.

Agreed. However, Chris Rock said he wasn't aware of the disease she has, and like I noted above, a lot of women shave their heads and it looks really good sometimes. I think Jada wears the look well, actually. If I'd just seen a picture of her, I'd have thought it was just a fashion choice that her head was shaved. So maybe Rock thought the same. We may never know about that.

[Mark Ogden]

I would frankly be surprised if there is either an Academy or an Oscars left in ten years for him to return to. I can't think of a single organization that has so utterly and so completely lost sight of its foundational mission.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I can think of a few other organizations, but I guess we'd be way out-of-scope.

It does not. He can still be nominated for Oscars.

I guess he could also go back and make another Fresh Prince album. He isn't banned from the Grammys, after all.

So, if he wins another Oscar, it's his evil twin who needs to pick it up for him. I guess the chance it will happen is small, but the situation would probably look worse for the academy than for Smith.

[Mike Blakesley]

In the good old days when Johnny Carson or Bob Hope were hosting the Oscars, it was quite common for stars not to be on hand to pick up their Oscar. Usually it was because they were busy making another movie. You would hear "Accepting the award for Clint Eastwood is producer, Jack Producer." And Jack would say how much Clint regretted not being there and how much he appreciated the award.

This was back when the Oscars actually meant something to the world and they weren't just a way to show off the latest designer clothes.

[Bobby Henderson]

However, Chris Rock said he wasn't aware of the disease she has, and like I noted above, a lot of women shave their heads and it looks really good sometimes.

Which is why I keep repeating the earlier point about Chris Rock's involvement with the Good Hair documentary. Even aside from that he's a black guy. He has a lot more experience and insight about the topic of black hair than any of us. If a black woman shaves her head she's taking a pretty radical step. Demi Moore could shave her head in G.I. Jane yet grow back a bunch of it within a year. The same goes for other white actresses that have done the same thing, like Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road. It's not nearly as easy for black women to grow back all that hair. Healthy hair growth gets even harder to come by with age. If a middle-aged black woman shaves her head it's likely her reasons for doing that are more than just a fashion statement. Lots of black women wear wigs, either because they choose to do so or the specific situation with their own hair forces them to do so. It takes a certain amount of good hair just to attach tracks for a hair weave. And good wigs are expensive.

Anyway, Chris Rock keeps using the excuse about not knowing Jada Pinkett-Smith had alopecia. I think he knew better anyway, which I why I believe his joke crossed some lines based on the context of his own life experience. He most certainly did not deserve to get assaulted over it though.