It was the slap heard ‘round the world. Almost a year has passed since actor Will Smith shocked the world by slapping comedian and erstwhile friend Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards, after the Oscar host had poked fun at the shaved head of Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
On Saturday night, the comedian performed Netflix’s first-ever live broadcast, a comedy special titled Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, from the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore — and finally got his revenge on Smith.
“Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face,” quipped Rock at one point in the show.
“I got smacked at the f***ing Oscars by this m*****f****er. And people are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts!”
Rock went on to skewer Smith over the headline-making “entanglement” drama he had with wife Jada, and the Red Table Talk episode they did together.
This “entanglement” refers to the affair Jada had in June 2020 with singer and rapper August Alsina. Alsina had admitted that he and Jada were in an adulterous relationship in 2016, when he was 23 and she was 44.
More shockingly, he said it was done with Smith’s permission.
Smith and Jada eventually talked about the affair publicly, drawing mixed reactions from the public.
“We all been cheated on. Everybody in this industry has been cheated on,” joked Rock. “None of us have ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us on television. None of us… Why the f*** would you do that s***? She hurt him way more than he hurt me, okay?”
As to why he didn’t respond physically to Smith’s slap, Rock said, “because I was raised! I was raised by parents who taught me. You know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”
Mic drop — then Rock sauntered off the stage to a raucous standing ovation.
Since last year’s Oscars incident, Smith has publicly apologized for his action and resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has banned him from attending its events for
10 years.