Image: Twitter/Gizmodo
The internet is full of conspiracy theories ranging from the absurd to the relatively believable. The latest of these theories revolves around the idea that Will Smith’s attack on Chris Rock during the Oscars was staged. The latest “data” supporting this theory is some sort of patch that Rock wore hidden on his face.
The theory assures that the attack wasn’t just a montage allegedly staged by organizers to offset deteriorating viewership for the ceremony. Additionally, they claim that Chris Rock wore a concealed patch on his face to cushion the slap he would receive for higher rating fame.
Capturing one of the viral images of the alleged conspiracy Screenshot: Twitter
A small patch won’t do much to mitigate a slap in the face, but let’s give the theory the benefit of the doubt for a moment and examine the photos of the altercation. All you have to do is access the press photos of the aggression uploaded to independent agencies such as AFP, whose metadata allow any kind of manipulation to delete the evidence to be excluded. For example, this photo of Robyn Beck came from Getty Images (AFP).
Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP (Getty Images)
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It’s enough to zoom in to see that Rock didn’t have a spot on his face.
Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP (Getty Images)
But… Is it possible that AFP and Getty were bought out by the promoters and uploaded manipulated photos with fake metadata. Let’s check out this other photo by Chris Pizzello for the Associated Press.
Photo: Chris Pizzello (AP)
Photo: Chris Pizzello (AP)
Same result. There isn’t even a trace of a patch to be seen by zooming in, which means it either exists only in the feverish imagination of the conspirators or there really are a lot of people involved, and we already know from the math that the more people involved are a conspiracy, the more impossible it becomes to hide.
Where did this image of Rock come from with some sort of bandage the same color as his skin on his cheek? There are two possible explanations. The first is that someone over there photoshopped it. People create false images all the time. Sometimes he does it just for fun and sometimes for more sinister reasons.
The second possibility is that someone tried to use an AI program to enhance the image precisely in the sense of finding details hidden from the naked eye. You can use apps like Remini to improve the quality of a photo. The problem is that many people don’t understand how the algorithms that serve as the basis for these applications work.
Remini and similar apps analyze a heavily pixelated photo and try to guess what information is missing. It’s not like the algorithms extract some hidden information in the JPG. You invent what is missing. The result is that they don’t show a more accurate version of the original image, but rather a machine-generated interpretation. In the case of Rock’s lines of expression, an application like Remini can perfectly interpret that these lines were more detailed and add them. At Gizmodo, we’ve tried to accurately reproduce the bug using Remini, but the resulting image also contains detail and artifacts that make Rock’s face look rather odd. This is the original photo:
THE original pixelated photo that we tried to scale with. Image: Gizmodo
And here’s the picture after Gemini went through the digital “upscaling” process to 8K.
Photo upscaled to 8K by Remini. Image: Gizmodo
Again, the photo that gave rise to this theory is the only one that exists in a sea of images taken by independent professional photographers who have not captured a trace of the alleged stain. Which leaves the possibility of Photoshop as the most real. Now you may have to ask yourself which is more likely, that an organization sacrifices its prestige and credibility for a sad surge in viewership, or that a 17-year-old from some corner of the world wants to feed your credibility for a laugh.
As for the slap itself, we won’t go into whether or not it was justified. Will Smith issued a public apology on Instagram on Monday, although it was not revealed if the actor privately apologized to Rock or if there was an exchange of apologies for his wife’s balding joke. In the end, all that remains for the story is a resounding slap in the face, which took place as part of a gala where everything is supposedly controlled.