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Joe Rogan calls out Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars: ‘It sets a terrible precedent’

‘You can’t just go smack a man in the face in front of world and then go about business as usual’

Peony Hirwani
Wednesday 30 March 2022 09:09 BST
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‘It sets a terrible precedent’: Joe Rogan criticises Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock at Oscars

Joe Rogan has said that Will Smith set a “terrible precedent for comedy clubs” by slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars 2022 ceremony.

During Sunday’s (27 March) ceremony, Rock was presenting the award for Best Documentary when he made a joke about the appearance of Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

“Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see you,” he quipped in an apparent reference to the actor’s shaved head.

Smith then walked on stage and struck the comedian, yelling “keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth”.

Rogan shared his thoughts about the incident on Tuesday’s (29 March) episode of his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

He said: “Chris Rock was doing his f***ing job.”

“You don’t go sit in the front row, you’re a star at the Oscars, [and] there’s a professional comedian whose job is to roast people. That’s what he’s doing, and what he did was not even insulting. It was a mild joke,” Rogan said. “[Smith] was emotionally fragile and he acted on impulse in a staggeringly stupid way.”

Rogan further said that he was astonished at the Academy Award’s decision to let Smith go back on stage to accept his Best Actor award for King Richard.

It’s a rare instance that someone [is] so enormously famous and successful like Will Smith that they literally still allowed him to not just win the Academy Award, but also go up and accept it and give a speech after he assaulted a small comedian on stage.”

MMA fighter Josh Barnett, who was a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, agreed with the host, saying: “They should’ve ejected him.”

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Rogan added: “You can’t just go smack a man in the face in front of the world and then go about business as usual.”

“It sets a terrible precedent in so many different ways,” he said. “It sets a terrible precedent for comedy clubs. Like, are people going to decide to go on stage and smack a comedian now?”

On Monday (28 March), Smith issued an apology for slapping Rock at the Oscars.

“I was out of line and I was wrong,” read his statement.

The King Richard star said he knows jokes are part of his life as a public figure, and that “violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive”.

Find the full list of 2022 Oscar winners here. See the latest updates and reactions from the dramatic ceremony here, and read about the biggest talking points here.

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