Why It Was So Hard to Believe “the Slap” Wasn’t Staged
The internet has trained us to believe everything is fake. So have the Oscars.
My TV lagged for the entirety of the Oscars on Sunday night, so I had to lean on Twitter to stay up to the minute. I’d watch my feed update with who won awards well before their names were called on my screen. Which meant at 10:27 p.m., when I received a text from a friend asking, “Was that real?” I had no clue what he was talking about for several, excruciating minutes.
“Wait, what?” I responded. “The Oscars! It looked like Will Smith actually punched Chris Rock.” Minutes later, when the action finally hit my television, I found he was right. It really did look like Smith hit Rock. (Technically, it was a slap, not a punch.)
Was that real? The question rippled through Twitter. No, it wasn’t real. Just look at how Chris Rock smiled the whole time. Nobody could keep that grin after being really slapped. Yes, it was real. Just watch Jada Pinkett Smith roll her eyes.
No, it wasn’t real. It was a stage slap. It didn’t actually hurt him. Yes, it was real. The whole thing aired uncensored in Japan complete with audio of Smith yelling, not once but twice, “Keep my wife’s name out of your F***KING mouth.” In this full clip, Rock looks utterly stunned, all words having just been slapped from his face. Seeing this version, it’s hard to think for even a moment this was all a bit. Chris Rock, after all, is not a very good actor.
