Validity of the claim that Will Smith "could've killed" Chris Rock

[ScienceNostalgia101]

https://pagesix.com/2022/03/28/judd-apatow-says-will-smith-could-have-killed-chris-rock/

 

What is the probability that one slap could have caused someone to lose their balance, fall, and hit their head in a life-endangering manner? How does this compare to, let's say, every day risks like the risk of driving, or not-as-everyday risks like the risks of getting hit by lightning when standing outside in a thunderstorm?

[MigL]

I find it funny that Will Smith gets upset that Chris Rock made fun of his wife's haircut, but doesn't seem concerned about the ( likely true ) rumors that his wife banged his son's friend.
This will provide Chris Rock with more material for 'black on black violence' comedy.

Why is this crap all over the news ???

[swansont]

4 hours ago, MigL said:

I find it funny that Will Smith gets upset that Chris Rock made fun of his wife's haircut

 

It's not a haircut. It's a medical condition called Alopecia and making a joke about it was crass and IMO an example of "punching down"

4 hours ago, ScienceNostalgia101 said:

https://pagesix.com/2022/03/28/judd-apatow-says-will-smith-could-have-killed-chris-rock/

 

What is the probability that one slap could have caused someone to lose their balance, fall, and hit their head in a life-endangering manner? How does this compare to, let's say, every day risks like the risk of driving, or not-as-everyday risks like the risks of getting hit by lightning when standing outside in a thunderstorm?

I wasn't aware that Judd Apatow had medical training that would make his pronouncement have any weight at all.

Sure you can Google these statistics and find this information.

[dimreepr]

6 hours ago, MigL said:

I find it funny that Will Smith gets upset that Chris Rock made fun of his wife's haircut

It's never funny, to deliberately attack a known weakness; in case they have access to the Mafia...

[mistermack]

One punch kills a lot of people every year. One slap could kill, if the slapped person's brain was in a vulnerable state. The sudden movement of the skull can damage some brains more than others, leading to a fatal stroke. It's not very likely, but a heavy slap can jerk the skull as violently as some punches. 

It's become a tradition of the Oscars that the host "roasts" people in the audience, often in questionable taste. And it's also the tradition that the 'victims' smile and take it. Chris Rock was expected to follow the usual line. He paid Will Smith's wife the compliment of treating her as an adult equal, who can take it. Will Smith, on the other hand, paid her an insult, by portraying her as the little woman who needs the big man's protection. Definitely not complimentary, and totally sexist. 

"Just you sit there, little lady, while I go and sort out that male showbusiness pig"   

Then he came up with that embarassing blubbering justification that "love made him do it".

Exactly like the mantra of most abusive men. It's always someone else who "makes" them do it. Never their own fault. 

They really should take back the Oscar. Or at least, go back to the voters, and get them to vote again. 

 

[StringJunky]

Jokes are nearly always at the expense of somebody, he should be well aware, being a comedian himself. Whether it's actually funny is subjective.

Edited March 29, 2022 by StringJunky

[Prometheus]

I can understand why he'd be upset, but so easily resorting to violence is a dangerous precedent for a role model of his stature, especially given he's a professional comedian known for his charisma and so has more appropriate, and probably more effective, means of defending his wife's dignity. 

Apparently the stats on one punch kills are pretty sparse, for instance UK police don't collect that data.

[TheVat]

Guess it's just as well that Ricky Gervais didn't host this year.

[StringJunky]

24 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Guess it's just as well that Ricky Gervais didn't host this year.

Yeah, CR's got nowt on RG. WS has apologised to CR.

[zapatos]

Q. What kind of Wood doesn't float?

A. Natalie Wood

Do I really deserve to be hit for that joke? Many people here tell worse jokes in the "Jokes" thread, or in any Trump thread, for that matter.

Smith was, IMO, way out of line. I would expect a mature adult to be able to manage his impulses better.

[swansont]

56 minutes ago, zapatos said:

Q. What kind of Wood doesn't float?

A. Natalie Wood

Do I really deserve to be hit for that joke? Many people here tell worse jokes in the "Jokes" thread, or in any Trump thread, for that matter.

I've heard that joke and might have even repeated it, but I wouldn't say it in front of Robert Wagner.

56 minutes ago, zapatos said:

Smith was, IMO, way out of line. I would expect a mature adult to be able to manage his impulses better.

Rock telling the joke and Smith's response are largely separate issues IMO. Rock shouldn't have told it, Smith shouldn't have slapped him.

[iNow]

Would he have slapped Amy Schumer if she'd made the exact same joke? Nah, doubtful.

Would the person slapping Chris Rock be in jail right now if they weren't Will Smith, especially if there were black? Yeah, probably. 

Why do people care at all? Mostly because we're a bunch of simpletons looking for easy distractions from the trials and tribulations of the world... moths chasing the light. Or... in this case... the light-hearted. 

[Phi for All]

An aspect that's being overlooked is that extra bit of privilege a famous comedian gets in front of an audience of those intimately familiar with being in front of an audience as well as among them. There's a meta-performance issue at these awards ceremonies where fellow performers are expecting a known comic to be really funny and they also know their reactions are being filmed, and when the comic times a comment just right, the laugh is automatically on the lips, which doesn't give enough time to process what was actually said.

Without that expectation, the ideal reaction to Chris Rock's cheap shot would have been nothing but crickets from that Hollywood crowd. They would have listened more closely to the words and realized the difference between roasting a colleague and attacking someone's illness. It would have shown Rock that he went too far and lost favor, momentum, and laughs. That's how you show a comedian your disapproval, not by assaulting them on stage. 

[zapatos]

But it's alopecia, not lung cancer or schizophrenia. 

I have male pattern baldness and people have made jokes at my expense since it began in late high school. While bald jokes are kind of cheap and not really that funny (to me), I have never once gotten terribly upset or felt the need to strike someone.

As @StringJunky noted, jokes are nearly always at the expense of someone. While Rock's joke may not have been that funny, he was doing what he was hired to do and what the audience wanted and expected of him. If Smith had not struck Rock, nearly no one would have given the joke a second thought.

I believe Rock did nothing wrong and that Smith needs to gain better control over his impulses.

[StringJunky]

19 minutes ago, zapatos said:

But it's alopecia, not lung cancer or schizophrenia. 

I have male pattern baldness and people have made jokes at my expense since it began in late high school. While bald jokes are kind of cheap and not really that funny (to me), I have never once gotten terribly upset or felt the need to strike someone.

As @StringJunky noted, jokes are nearly always at the expense of someone. While Rock's joke may not have been that funny, he was doing what he was hired to do and what the audience wanted and expected of him. If Smith had not struck Rock, nearly no one would have given the joke a second thought.

I believe Rock did nothing wrong and that Smith needs to gain better control over his impulses.

I've had over half a century of deaf jokes at my expense. I'm pretty bullet proof.  Some are funny. I would have thought the Natalie Wood joke funny as youngster, but not anymore.

[MigL]

8 hours ago, swansont said:

t's not a haircut. It's a medical condition called Alopecia and making a joke about it was crass and IMO an example of "punching down"

Her condition forces her to keep her hair cut really short ... like G.I. Jane.
That was the joke.

Where are we going with this ?
Safe spaces for those poor disadvantaged Hollywood celebrities ?
Shootings in comedy clubs ( especially when Ricky Gervais is performing ) ?

Real life doesn't give anyone the right to not be offended.
And I still don't know why it's all over the news, but I suspect INow is right, it provides a distraction from the real problems.

[zapatos]

Part of the issue is that you cannot gauge ahead of time how someone will react to a joke. If you've ever watched a "roast" you'll know that with some people there is absolutely no joke that will cause them distress, while others can be bent out of shape by the mildest of teasing. 

We have a cabin on a river that we allow the extended family to use whenever it is available. My nephew went with some friends and managed to burn down a (very old) smoke house, pig shed and outhouse. He felt devastated that he was responsible, but almost immediately jokes started being directed toward him when he was seen lighting a candle or doing anything else related to fire. He was greatly relieved as the joking indicated that the situation maybe wasn't such a big deal after all.

A real possible outcome of Rock's joke was that Jada Pinkett Smith may have felt relieved that people weren't walking on eggshells around her, and were basically saying "hey, we don't care if you have alopecia and you shouldn't either!"

I know we can't blame people for being what might be considered 'thin-skinned', but we also shouldn't blame people for trying to be funny and maybe falling short.

 

[Phi for All]

45 minutes ago, zapatos said:

But it's alopecia, not lung cancer or schizophrenia. 

I have male pattern baldness and people have made jokes at my expense since it began in late high school. While bald jokes are kind of cheap and not really that funny (to me), I have never once gotten terribly upset or felt the need to strike someone.

It's definitely cheap to point out parts of someone's body as being "less than ideal", especially when it's something one has little control over. Jokes on genetics have ALWAYS been hurtful and antagonistic. Big noses, red hair, no hair, big butt, small breasts, pigeon-toed, harelip, buck-toothed, non-white skin. People are often expected to be good-natured about things they can't control. Bullies are allowed to poke fun because "they don't mean anything by it", and they're "just giving you a hard time".

I think there's a difference when it's something that attacks you like autoimmune disorders. I don't know enough about it, but it's my impression that alopecia isn't as genetically predictable as knowing you're nose is going to be as big as your grandfather's, or that you'll be bald by 30. If Jada Smith had rheumatoid arthritis, and hobbled when she walked, would it be appropriate to joke about her Olympic marathon chances? If she had Type 1 diabetes and had a severe hypoglycemic reaction, is it OK to joke about the seizures, or that all those holes in her arm make her look like an addict? MS can make a person look unbalanced and drunk, so there's a bunch of low-hanging fruit there. Lupus often starts as an unsightly rash, and we all know how easy it is to give a hard time to someone with skin that doesn't look right. 

I've often felt like some people need a back-of-the-head clout (grandma-speak for "What's the matter with you?!") for calling out the differences in others, but I don't actually do it. And I have to admit that I was a bigger fan of Chris Rock before his divorce. The last special of his I watched showed how bitter he's become towards women, and because of that I suppose I read some extra venom into his remarks about Jada Smith.

[MigL]

But 'cheap' is what 99% of comedians do ( at least the good ones ).
Jokes have to be dumbed down and obvious, or they fly over everyone's heads.

If you are unconfortable with that, you have the option of not going into a comedy show.
( and don't sit in the front row, or draw attention by heckling )

Will and Jada could have boycotted again, and Chris would have said...
" Jada P Smith boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rhianna's panties. I wasn't invited!"

Could be Will and Chris have some long-simmering issue, that finally boiled over ?

[zapatos]

32 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

It's definitely cheap to point out...

And that is the way YOU feel about it. Not everyone does. I laugh at jokes made at my expense all the time and am happy people are comfortable enough around me to make those jokes. Go to a comedy club and you'll see that people really like cheap jokes. 

If you don't want people joking at your expense, or don't want people telling certain types of jokes around you, then by all means tell them and be happy with your decision to do so. But comedy at the expense of others is here to stay and accepted by enough of society that it is not going away.

I certainly don't make jokes at people's expense if I suspect it may not go over with them too well, but I usually find most people enjoy that type of joking around. 

[Phi for All]

7 minutes ago, zapatos said:

I certainly don't make jokes at people's expense if I suspect it may not go over with them too well, but I usually find most people enjoy that type of joking around. 

Or most people have learned to appear to enjoy that type of joking around. If you appear sensitive about it, you attract more bullying. It can seem reasonable that allowing people to give us a hard time will make us stronger, but aren't we really just ignoring comments that would make us angry if we knew the joker "meant" something by it? 

If I'm joking at the expense of someone else's "lack", I don't think I'm trying hard enough to be funny. And comedy evolves like all else in our societies. Many things used to be hilarious that we cringe at now. I would personally love to see us move away from debasing people through their physical flaws as a way to elevate ourselves. People do enough crazy stuff to keep the comedians busy, so why keep perpetuating outdated physical stereotypes?

Are the Academy Awards the same as heading down to the comedy club to see a show? I haven't watched them in years, so they might have changed. I thought it was more about peer-to-peer recognition and acknowledgement of artistic merit. If it's more like a roast now, I can understand why the viewership has declined.

[beecee]

10 hours ago, swansont said:

It's not a haircut. It's a medical condition called Alopecia and making a joke about it was crass and IMO an example of "punching down"

 

4 hours ago, swansont said:

I've heard that joke and might have even repeated it, but I wouldn't say it in front of Robert Wagner.

That just about sums up my view/s on what happened also. 

No, I didn't watch the Oscars, (the Mrs did) it bores me to tears.

On the other side of the fence, I was once called an "old bastard" by this young punk....I simply replied, "I'm there mate, you have yet to get there!" I also often make fun of myself by referring to myself as an old fat bastard. But by the same token, if anyone would refer to my Mrs in the same thoughtless way that this bloke did to Will Smith's wife, I may react the same way.

Out of interest we have a comedian in Australia called "Steady Eddie" Here is a clip of him in action.....

 

14 hours ago, ScienceNostalgia101 said:

What is the probability that one slap could have caused someone to lose their balance, fall, and hit their head in a life-endangering manner? How does this compare to, let's say, every day risks like the risk of driving, or not-as-everyday risks like the risks of getting hit by lightning when standing outside in a thunderstorm?

It can and on rare occasions does happen. We have had two incidents in Sydney over a couple of years, where innocent people, (one was a young teenager of 18 years) being attacked for no reason, in the city, by some drunk yahoo. He fell, hit his head on the gutter and died a few days later. We call them one punch cowards. He ( the one punch coward) was charged with murder, got off with manslaughter and received a pretty stiff sentence...around 10 years from memory. Although it could be said that being a "stiff senetnce" is relative, since the victim payed with his life.

[joigus]

6 hours ago, TheVat said:

Guess it's just as well that Ricky Gervais didn't host this year.

LOL.

By the way, what a master of self-control and cool, cool man, Chris Rock, in every sense of the word.

Kudos, Chris. My respect and admiration.

[beecee]

4 hours ago, zapatos said:

I have male pattern baldness and people have made jokes at my expense since it began in late high school. While bald jokes are kind of cheap and not really that funny (to me), I have never once gotten terribly upset or felt the need to strike someone.

Join the club! I'm actually oblivious to those now...like water off a Duck's back.

Reminds me though when I was undergoing cataract surgery last June, just before the surgeon started the procedure, I asked her, "Why don't blind people bunjee jump?" She asked me why, with instruments in her hand. I replied "Because it scares fuck out of the Dog" ( I did though substitute the "F" word with hell) She near pissed herself laughing!!! BTW, the operation was a great success, so much so I can now drive without glasses and only now need them for reading.

[joigus]

A joke is a joke; if it's not funny, so much the worse for the joke, and the joker.

But I don't think for a minute Chris Rock's life was in danger. Com'on.