Will Smith And Chris Rock Talk: Ain’t We All Hypocrites? -By Rees Chikwendu

I know some people enjoy dark humor, but there is nothing funny about using people’s ailments or health conditions to make jokes. It becomes insensitive when it’s public knowledge that they are going through something. It shows empathy to skip such a script if someone else wrote it for you. Likewise, in defending your woman’s honor, it is wrong to walk up to someone’s space and assault the person, especially in the context of Chris Rock and Will Smith. There is nothing sexy or manly about it.

It’s even more hypocritical that Will Smith found the joke funny and only got up to slap Chris after he saw his wife didn’t find the joke funny like him. That’s hypocrisy. I didn’t see this reaction when August had an ‘entanglement’ with his wife. We would have interpreted it differently if Smith’s slap happened as self-defense to protect his wife. For God’s sake, comedians like Chris Rock thrive in dark humor, and he may not have anything personal against Jada Smith.

To justify Smith’s act of violence sets a precedent for people to start slapping comedians on stage for their dark senses of humor. It doesn’t mean that we should always throw away empathy and caution in the name of comedy.

In addition, I have observed some people with Ukrainian flags on their profile cheering Smith. To them, he had done right by defending his woman’s honor. SMH. If you cheer and support Will Smith for walking up to someone’s space to assault the person, which is an act of violence but condemns Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine’s space, are you not a fantastic hypocrite? If you think Smith’s assault on Chris was commendable because he was ‘defending his woman’s honor,’ can we also commend Putin’s assault on Ukraine? Knowing what was at stake, can we say Zelensky’s attempt to join NATO was dark humor too? That would be absurd, right? But that’s how some of you sounded in your arguments.

I have seen some radical feminists cheering Smith. Now it’s okay to defend his woman’s honor by assaulting another man. Some of you feminists surprise me. What now happened to your radical feminism? By the way, Pete Davidson, a white male, made a similar dark joke about Kanye’s mental health. I didn’t see y’all condemn Davidson for that joke. Could it be because Kanye is a male and black and the comedian is white?

Ain’t we all hypocrites? We only pick the side that suits our racist mindsets and biases.