The Will Smith & Chris Rock saga

ALYSSIA BIRJALAL

How can we remember anything else? DAMN!

LOCAL COMEDIANS SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON THE WILL SMITH & CHRIS ROCK SAGA

AN EVENT filled with glitz, glamour and shiny golden statuettes was meant to be the order of the night at the 94th Academy Awards, but Will Smith stole the show with that unforgettable slap he planted on Chris Rock after Rock cracked a joke about his wife, JadaPinkett Smith.

Talk now revolves around whether Smith over-reacted or whether Rock overstepped his boundaries as a comedian.

Local comedians, Masood Boomgaard, Siv Ngesi and “Aunty Shamilla” portrayed by Prev Reddy shared their views.

Boomgaard said that he wasn’t sure if the slap was real or staged.

He said a part of him still thinks it was staged to boost Oscar ratings which have fallen dramatically.

Boomgaard said if real, Smith’s reaction was definitely uncalled for.

“No matter what the joke was or what the circumstances were, there is no excuse for violence particularly in that context,” he said.

YouTuber and social media influencer Prev Reddy said: “At first I thought it was part of a skit. I think there is a very fine line between humour and being insensitive, and I guess at its core humour is laughing at the ugly truths about human behaviour, but I do believe that laughing at an illness is not funny,” said Reddy.

He said that he understood Smith’s frustration but thought the situation could have been handled better. PinkettSmith suffers from a hair loss condition alopecia, and Rock had referred to the actress as GI Jane due to her close cropped hair.

“I get the anger. If I had to make a joke about someone’s health conditions- which I would never - people will be offended, especially the family of that person,” said Reddy.

Comedian and actor Siv Ngesi said Smith would have never slapped a man of a different colour.

“Will Smith would have never done that to a white guy. He is wrong and out of line. I wish he would have tried that s**t with me,” said Ngesi.