Five-time Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais is known for courting controversy with his comedy. As such, he pulled no punches while sharing how he might have handled Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.
When asked about the Jada Pinkett Smith jab that provoked the actor (“G.I. Jane 2—can’t wait to see it”), Gervais dismissed it during a recent Twitter live, calling Rock’s line, “like, the tamest joke I would’ve ever have told.” The comedian then insisted that Smith wouldn’t have become violent if he had been onstage. “Nothing would happen to me because I wouldn’t have told a joke about his wife’s hair. I’d have told a joke about her boyfriend,” Gervais said. (The Smiths have spoken openly about Pinkett Smith’s “entanglement” with musician August Alsina during a time when the couple was amicably split.)
In the slap’s aftermath, many pointed out that Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss. Gervais shrugged off the autoimmune disorder’s severity. “Someone said it was joking about her disability,” he said on Twitter. “Well, I’m going a bit thin, so I’m disabled. That means that I can park right up next to Tesco’s now. And I’m fat. That’s a disease. I’m fat and balding. I should get fucking benefit.”
Kenny Rock, Chris’s brother, said in a statement earlier this week that the comedian was unaware of Pinkett Smith’s alopecia prior to the Academy Awards. “The joke was funny,” he said. “It wasn’t hilarious funny, but I know that if he knew that she had alopecia…he wouldn’t make a joke about that. But he didn’t know.”
Gervais previously tweeted his hypothetical Oscar monologue ahead of the ceremony. “I’d start with ‘Hello. I hope this show helps cheer up the ordinary people watching at home,” he wrote. “If you’re unemployed for example, take some comfort in the fact that even if you had a job, your salary probably wouldn’t be as much as the goody bag all the actors have just been given.’” Gervais continued, “I’m proud to announce that this is the most diverse and progressive Oscars ever. Looking out I see people from all walks of life. Every demographic under the sun. Except poor people, obviously. Fuck them.”
— Even Before Will Smith, It Was a Strange and Awkward Oscars
— “A Deeply Shocking, Traumatic Event”: The Academy Forcefully Decries Will Smith
— Inside the Vanity Fair Oscar Party
— Marilyn Monroe’s Final Hours: Nuke Fears, Mob Spies, and a Secret Kennedy Visitor
— WeWork’s Adam and Rebekah Neumann: 9 Crazy Real-Life Stories
— Colin Firth and Toni Collette on the New True-Crime Series The Staircase
— Where Did All the Sex Go in Bridgerton Season Two?
— What TV’s Increase in Full-Frontal Male Nudity Really Means
— 15 Oscar-Winning Movies You Can Stream Right Now
— From the Archive: Sandra Bullock, Full of Surprises
— Sign up for the “HWD Daily” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage—plus a special weekly edition of “Awards Insider.”
Leave a Reply