(Update) Here’s The Best Take On The Oscar Slap, And It Has Nothing To Do With Will Or Chris
[Update: Jada responded! Kind of. Check out her response at the bottom of this article.]
There’s no way you don’t know what happened at the Oscars on Sunday. Even if you’re like me and didn’t even watch the Academy Awards, you’ve likely seen all about Will Smith slapping the crap out of Chris Rock on TikTok or YouTube or from your coworkers. It’s all anyone will talk about. Of course, there’s a debate going on here. Did Chris deserve it? Is violence ever the answer? And yes, the memes have flooded Twitter to the point of bursting.
It all started when Chris Rock mentioned Jada Pinkett Smith as he roasted a large portion of the people in the room. He asked her about GI Jane 2 before trying to move on to the next person in his sights. It was a dig at her shaved head but, whether he knew it or not, her lack of hair is thanks to her struggle with alopecia.
After briefly laughing at the joke, Will Smith walked onto stage, went right up to a confused Chris Rock, and slapped the shit out of him. Will then sat down and yelled from his cushy seat, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!” Moments later, Will Smith won the best actor Oscar. It was a wild night.
The thing is, with everyone debating Will vs. Chris, all the focus is on the wrong people. Most takes on the Oscar slap were fine, but when I heard this one from Twitch streamer Granny, I was blown away:
Granny’s brought up something I haven’t heard anywhere else before.
What this is about is a woman[…]who was disrespected and was not able to handle it in the way she maybe would have liked to. And everyone is speaking for her. Everyone is dissecting what this is about. And no one is bothering to wonder what Jada thinks about this. This is about her. This is a deep set emotional thing that occurred on live television and the only person that should be explaining what this is or what this means or how it feels is Jada. Maybe she doesn’t want to talk about it, and that’s fair.
Granny / YouTube
It’s so true. Everyone’s so focused on Will and Chris, but what about Jada? Is this how she would have wanted things to go? How must she have felt as her husband stormed on stage and assaulted someone on a night that was supposed to be about anything else?
Granny goes on to say:
She’s the only one I care to know the opinion of. Jada is the only one allowed to say how she feels. This is about her. Will Smith made it about him.
Granny / YouTube
And that’s what this boils down to. The focus isn’t on Jada, it isn’t on the issue, it isn’t on how she feels. It’s about two grown men making it all about them. Thanks, Granny, for the insightful take on the Oscar slap. Now can we all retire the topic for good?
Update: Jada Responds
As Granny said, the only person who should have any say in this Oscar slap drama is the woman herself, Jada Pinkett Smith. We got an update from her on Instagram. Well, sort of. Check out her cryptic IG post:
What does it mean? We could probably come up with all sorts of assumptions, but that would be even more of the problem. It’s not for us to interpret. If she wanted us to know more, she would have said more. Maybe we should just leave it at this.