94
Will Smith’s comeback has been a disaster – but does the punishment fit the crime?
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2025
94 points (87.9% liked)
World News
49601 readers
1859 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Chris rock.
He made a joke about Jada’s Alocopeia (the hair condition thing, if I spelled that right.) and also some jokes about their open relationship.
So, most of us can understand the impulse, I imagine. And most of us have enough sense not to make fun of medical conditions on a stage that large. To their face.
Will laughed at the joke just as hard as everyone else, looked back at Jada glaring at him and decided to do a bit of performative violence.
He did that as an apology for laughing, he did that because he thought that's what Jada wanted in that moment. If some asshole does that in a bar, they get the cops called on them. The whole action was not only cringe, it was as much of an act as his entire bullshit speech when they actually let him accept an award later.
The Oscar's should have stopped the show and had the police escort him out. Instead they awarded him later. Chris Rock made him look like such a bitch in his tour a few years later, it was beautiful. That man acted appropriately, and got his back later.
I can't imagine looking at this action in the whole and seeing any justification. Which is why he's finding a come back so hard.
Ya'll tell on yourselves too much when you say things like "most."
Seems like you understand it quite well.
You’ll notice there’s a difference between understanding a motivation or impulse and acting on it, or indeed, condoning the act.
And we can also quite happily describe what Will did as wrong, just as we can be critical of Chris for making the joke in the first place.
That you seem think Will’s action invalidates any inappropriateness in Chris’s actions is itself pretty telling.
IMO they both suck. And we can say what the Oscar’s should have done with Will. I don’t really care. Cops aren’t going to press charges if the person assaulted doesn’t call for it regardless of where it happened. But also Oscar’s should have vetted that speech and been like “maybe don’t make fun of a person’s medical condition.” Which likely would have headed the whole matter off. Details.
Chris Rock is awesome, they hired him to be hilarious and he was. In no world is Will's 2nd reaction to the funny but lightly tasteless joke (man if they had waited to respond after the Oscar's, they would have eviscerated Chris Rock instead) appropriate. Again it was another performance, and you fell for it cause somehow you are putting both their actions on the same playing field. They aren't, no majority of people think that way either. Again that's why Will is going through this, he is the villain.
Also you need to stop watching TV and movies, police and the DA have the ultimate authority to press charges in the US and they do it all the time. The law isn't not-broken cause one party didn't press charges. That's honestly kinda adorable. The reason he didn't get arrested is cause he's more rich and famous than the guy he hit, and arresting him would have been more embarrassing for the event in the moment than doing nothing. As Chris Rock once said "If OJ drove a bus, he'd be Orenthal the bus driving murderer." A normal person would have received legal consequences.
You are telling on yourself, majority of weirdos have odd opinions on violence!
Alopecia
That doesn't warrant getting on stage to slap a guy. And... As a guy, who slaps another guy? If you're at the point of violence, who wouldn't just throw a punch? Slapping another guy is embarrassing in and of itself.
I didn’t say it did, don’t put words in my mouth.
I did say I understood the impulse.
As for slapping instead of punching? Me.i would.
Broken hands are not fun; and once you’re there, you’re gonna want your hand working afterwards.