Rock and Smith made headlines this past March when the comedian made a joke at the expense of Jada Pinkett Smith having shaved her head due to her alopecia diagnosis, resulting in her Oscar-winning husband taking to the stage and promptly slapping Rock across the face. Before he could continue, Smith returned to his chair and shouted profane threats to Rock, to which he accepted and continued his presentation as originally planned, with Smith winning the Best Actor award later in the night and apologizing to the Academy but not Rock in his speech.
Though he would apologize the following day to Rock, Smith would initially resign his Academy hip only to then be banned from attending any events for 10 years, all the while the public debated who to defend in the situation. As the debate continued over the following months, another comedian would find himself at the center of a new incident when Dave Chappelle was tackled on stage while performing for the Netflix is a Joke Fest at the Hollywood Bowl. With the perpetrator of the attack has since been arrested and Chappelle has discussed the matter with him, he is slowly sharing new insight regarding the situation.
Days after it occurred, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Dave Chappelle performed at a secret comedy show in Los Angeles and addressed his attack at the Hollywood Bowl. While recounting the events, Chappelle was ed onstage by Chris Rock for the remainder of the secret show, during which they made quips about Rock being slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars. See what Chappelle and Rock said below:
Chappelle: “At least you got smacked by someone of repute! I got smacked by a homeless guy with leaves in his hair.”
Rock: "I got smacked by the softest n—- that ever rapped.”
Rock's quip regarding Will Smith comes a few days after the comedian made another joke at the Oscar winner's expense. While attending the show in which Chappelle was attacked, Rock swiftly took to the stage to his fellow comic and cracked a joke asking if his attacker was Will Smith, to which the crowd cheered and laughed in response. Prior to Chappelle's attack, Rock has remained mostly silent about the Oscars slap incident, joking he would only talk about it when paid for the information while also saying he needed time to process the matter before properly commenting on it.
Between his comments at the original show and the new secret show, it appears Chris Rock is feeling more comfortable with discussing the controversial Oscars slap moment in the wake of the Dave Chappelle attack. Rock isn't the only comedian to come out in Chappelle's defense since he was tackled on stage, with Kevin Hart believing the attacker deserves a beatdown while America's Got Talent host Howie Mandel has expressed the recent attacks on comedians to be his "worst fear come true." With both incidents still fresh in the public's mind, only time will tell how the industry adjusts to the attacks and how they may affect the stand-up comedy world.
Source: THR
