The Oscar Slap

The Oscars. Every year Pam watches. Every year I don’t. Apparently, I am not alone, judging by the precipitous decline in the ratings over the past ten years. From an all time high audience of 50 million at one point to a mere 9 million souls last year, the fall from grace for this icon of American culture has been epic. The big shots that run the Academy have been tinkering with the format, trying to make it shorter etc..to no avail. Something had to be done. Enter Will Smith.

So, I open up the old iPad this morning and its wall to wall Will. I watch him stride up on the stage and slap comedian Chris Rock across the face in what looked like a pulled punch. I will take the word of everyone who says that it was an actual slap born of fury at hearing a joke being made at his wife’s expense, and not a staged attention-grabbing, headline-writing skit designed to have the world buzzing about what happened at the Oscars. If Hollywood’s version of events is true, then Will Smith, winner of the best actor Oscar physically assaulted a comedian on national television for the crime of telling a joke that offended him. Is this STAGE II of cancel culture, whereby offending voices are not merely silenced, but physically attacked? Time well tell, I suppose.

Remember back when parents were implored by Hollywood types to teach their children that violence was not the answer? The paying customers for Hollywood’s product have had to endure endless moralizing about everything from climate change to gay rights to evil republicans for decades now. It’s always great fun to be lectured to about our retrograde attitudes about this and that by people who have grown insanely rich making movies like Fast and Furious 16. These are the people who constantly complain about how the rest of us keep stereotyping people of color, assigning the worst behavior of a few to impugn an entire community. So while a dwindling slice of the world is watching, we are treated to a black man storming the stage to hit another black man in the face for telling a joke about his wife. Violence is never the answer, indeed. Of course, I guess it depends on what the question is.

Already, the excuse making brigades are out in full force. The joke was far too personal, they insist. Jada Smith has alopecia which has forced her to shave her head, making her even more gorgeous, if that were possible…so making a joke about how she might be making a sequel to G.I. Jane was just beyond the pale. 

I’m beginning to think that the most dangerous job in America is being a comedian.