First of all, let me clarify: This is not a comedy post, it is a post about comedy. It will be a great start for a series I am planning to do here teaching comedy and explaining it, however, don't expect to laugh here.
Quck Background
Obviously, everyone knows this already. While hosting the Oscars, Chris Rock quipped at Jada Pinkett-Smith likening her bald head to that of G.I Jane, a fictional Navy SEALS lieutenant played by Demi Moore in 1997 in the movie with the same name. That joke prompted Will Smith to get off his seat, walk onto the stage, and slap Chris Rock.
Jada of course suffers from Alopecia. So her baldness isn't a choice.
In this post, I aim to prove that the joke wasn't even offensive in the first place. But I would like to take a quick detour first.
A Joke Is A Joke
It seems that whenever someone doesn't like a joke it turns into so much more than that. I have seen terms like bullying, humiliation, insult, and a hundred different terms just to avoid saying that it was a joke. You do realize you could call a joke bad or in horrible taste, right? It doesn't have to be a hundred other things.
I have recently interacted with someone on Twitter who said about the incident to justify Will Smith's actions "I could be taunted within an inch of taking my own life, but if I reacted physically, I was the bad actor. That's shit". Strong words, but not, that's not what happened. What happened is, again, Chris Rock quipped at Jada. It has nothing to do with your high school bullies.
Conflating your life experience with someone else's 2 minutes of actions isn't really a justification for their actions. Again, it was a quick quip. Stop demanding so much from a joke! It's a joke, after all. This leads me to my next point.
Researching A Joke
At first, people seem to insist that Chris Rock knew of Jada's condition. Those who believed he didn't, insisted that he should have done his research. I am sorry, what? Thousands of people were at the event. Let's just say there were a hundred. Should Chris Rock have read the medical chart of everyone?
People wanting comedians to do deep research are just unrealistic. In this case, especially, it's quite laughable because they expect the research to lead everyone to find out that Jada suffers from Alopecia and just ends there.
Ironically, actual research would lead to videos of Jada talking about it and being okay with it. With a rather statement that really didn't age well
At this point, I can only laugh
And many where she expresses how she accepted it. Chris Rock didn't know about her Alopecia. But if he "did his research" he'd reach a similar result that would actually be more encouraging to make that joke. Especially when we talk about what the joke actually is. This leads me to my final and main point.
The Joke Isn't Offensive
This to me the most hilarious part of the whole debacle. Lots of people seem to want the joke to be horrible and worse than what it really is. It's mild at best. At the end of stretching it to its worst, it would still be mild. Now I am going to do what everyone dreams of doing as a comedian, and that is explaining a joke.
"Can't wait for G.I Jane 2 next year", is a joke where Jada is compared, again, to a female Navy SEALS lieutenant. The joke wasn't only because of Jada's lack of her but also mannerisms and clothes.
Jada was compared to a strong character, a literal soldier and fighter, played by one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood's history, Demi Moore. The question is; where is the insult? G.I Jane, by the way, was literally the name we gave a friend of mine when she was fighting cancer. Her father called her that and we stuck to it, it was literally a compliment and encouragement until she beat cancer.
It wasn't an offensive joke, so Chris Rock has nothing to apologize for.
In Conclusion
It will take a lot of spinning facts and conflating personal trauma and of course, blaming "White outrage" as per The Guardian to make the joke actually insulting enough to justify an act that wouldn't have been justified even if the joke is as bad as everyone hopes. It is rational thinking attempting to explain an impulsive, irrational act.
With that being said, I understand why Will reacted that way. I still think it is wrong, and no, I don't Chris Rock should react as well. And I don't even think Will Smith owned up in his apology, but I understand.
Will Smith's life has been center stage in the last few years more than ever. He's been mocked for having a marriage that isn't really traditional, his daughter even recently came out as being suicidal after her song "I Whip My Hair" while she wasn't even a teenager yet. I know people want to say "I'd be okay with those problems if I had his millions", but that's not how life is.
Add to all of that, Will Smith has been deserving the Oscar since 2001 in his film "Ali". It has been an accumulative point for him. He has his own history with the Oscars. There was just too much going on. You'd know more about it if you read his book "Will". In a way, Chris's quip was just the straw that broke the camels' back.
Will is still wrong, Chris doesn't owe an apology, the joke was mildly offensive at best. That's my take, what is yours?