The slap

I assume you’ve all heard about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife.

My understanding is that Jada Pinkett Smith has been struggling with hair loss, so she shaved her head. Chris Rock made a joke at the Oscars, saying she was ready to play in G.I. Jane 2. Will Smith laughed at the joke, but then saw his wife’s reaction, went up on stage and slapped Chris Rock, then went back to his seat and rudely told Rock not to talk about his wife.

On the positive side, I have to say I approve of a man standing up for his wife, and I’m glad Chris Rock is not pressing charges. If you’re going to be a comedian, you have to be ready to get punched or slapped from time to time. You are, after all, playing it right up close to the edge. That’s what comedians do.

On the negative side, if you’re going to be in the public eye, you have to expect a little ribbing. It goes with the territory. Although it’s hard for a man to sit idly by while his wife is the brunt of the joke.

Overall, I think our culture doesn’t have enough punches and slaps. That is 100 times more healthy than cancel culture, safe spaces, etc.

6 thoughts on “The slap”

  1. Here we have a case of celebrity privilege. Obviously someone who lashes out in violence should at least be thrown out of the venue where the event occurred, regardless of whether the victim presses charges. Maybe it is time to cancel Will Smith. Sometimes cancelling is the only weapon that civil people have short of punches and slaps.

    1. No. When men have a physical altercation, they usually reconcile and go away friends afterwards. They go have a beer. Often, the fight makes them better friends than they were before.

      There is no reconciliation or forgiveness in cancel culture. It’s a sick, twisted perversion.

      I’d bet that Chris Rock and Will Smith reconciled and everything’s fine now.

      Slaps and punches are far more civilized.

  2. Someone who has watched a lot of old movies might think that man-to-man physical violence is ultimately a kind of friendly thing. But let’s get back to reality. As someone who witnessed a lot of such violence in real life, I can testify that it doesn’t usually work that way. It is brutal and horribly uncivil. When the culture is open to that, you get the stronger, more privileged assaulting the weaker. The star football player beats up the little sissy and the coach thinks it’s funny. And why should the violent person be let off the hook (leaving aside “forgiveness,” which is quite another matter)? Definitely such a person is ripe for cancellation, whether or not the victim forgives him or not. Harvey Weinstein rightly got cancelled. So did Roger Ails. If we cancel sexual predators, surely we mustn’t turn a blind eye to people who lash out in violence.

  3. One more point: Will Smith walked up to Chris Rock and slapped him off-guard. That is what we used to call a “sucker punch,” which is totally unacceptable even for many of the people who believe in a culture of punches and slaps. Surely celebrity who stooped so low as to do that in public should be reprimanded in some way, at least temporarily. Or does Hollywood really believe in the values that it has been promoting for a good many decades now?

  4. QUOTE: If you’re going to be a comedian, you have to be ready to get punched or slapped from time to time.

    Really??? Who made that rule? If that’s the case, why stop there? Politicians tick off people quite frequently…so why shouldn’t they expect to be slapped or punched from time-to-time? If memory serves correctly, some conservatives where very concerned when a citizens of a different political preference were calling them out…interrupting their dinner, chasing them out of public establishments, threatening them, etc. That sort of pugnacity was considered a disgrace, even dangerous…but it seems you’re suggesting it’s okay occasionally.

    QUOTE: Overall, I think our culture doesn’t have enough punches and slaps.

    Would you recommend a disgruntled reader of The Crowhill Report do that to you if they were offended by one of your posts? After all, content creators are often provocateurs and play it close to the edge.

    QUOTE: No. When men have a physical altercation, they usually reconcile and go away friends afterwards. They go have a beer. Often, the fight makes them better friends than they were before.

    I’m not sure what world you’re living in but it’s surely a different one than I know…especially once the confrontation gets physical. I remember two men got into an altercation over a parking spot in the snow. One went into the house, got his gun and killed the other. Incidentally, neither ended up being friends nor having the parking spot once the altercation was over. Many times, these days, someone is killed or maimed and there’s no kissing and making up beyond that. Maybe that happened in the Leave It To Beaver and Mayberry era but today, it’s less common in real life today.

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