It may have taken him a year, but Chris Rock has finally addressed the infamous slap that he received from Will Smith at last year's Oscars.
The on-stage assault was one of the most shocking moments in awards history, and now Rock is pulling no punches (excuse the pun) when it comes to tearing Smith to shreds over the incident.
His new Netflix comedy special 'Selective Outrage' was broadcast live from Baltimore on Saturday night, and saw Rock refer to the actor as 'Suge Smith'. "I got smacked like a year ago… and people are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts," he said. "I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears."
He added that he had taken the hit "like [Manny] Pacquiao", admitting that Smith packed quite a punch. "Will Smith is significantly bigger than me. We are not the same size. Will Smith does movies with his shirt off. You’ve never seen me do a movie with my shirt off," he said. "Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie. You think I auditioned for that part? I played Pookie in ‘New Jack City.’ I played a piece of corn in ‘Pootie Tang.’”
Rock also laid some of the blame for the kerfuffle at the feet of Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith, saying "She fucking said [I] should quit because Will didn’t get nominated for ‘Concussion.’ What the fuck? So then I do some jokes about it. Who gives a fuck? That’s how it is. She started it. I finished it. Nobody’s picking on this bitch. She started this shit. Nobody was picking on her."
He accused Smith of practicing 'selective outrage' despite being publicly humiliated after Jada admitted to having an 'entanglement' during their marriage. She later discussed the affair with Smith on her Red Table Talks online chat show.
"His wife was fucking her son’s friend," he said. "I normally would not talk about this shit… I have no idea why two talented people would do something that fucking lowdown. We’ve all been cheated on. Everybody in here been cheated on. None of us has ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us… on television. She hurt him way more than he hurt me."
He added: "Everybody in the world called him a bitch. I tried to call the motherfucker. I tried to call that man and give him my condolences. He didn’t pick up for me... Everybody called him a bitch and who does he hit? Me."
And as for why he didn't fight back, he said "Because I got parents. I was raised. And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people."
Aside from Smith, Rock also took aim at the likes of Meghan Markle during the show, saying "You didn’t google these motherfuckers? What the fuck is she talking about she didn’t know? It’s the royal family. They’re the original racists. They invented colonialism. They are the OGs of racism. They’re the Sugarhill Gang of racism."
Smith has not responded to any of the points made by Rock, although he had previously spoken about the incident in a tearful interview with Trevor Noah. The slap saw him banned from attending the Academy Awards for ten years.
