Podcast giant Joe Rogan, who also appears as a standup comic, slammed Will Smith for setting a “horrific precedent” by slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.
Rogan, 54, feared “stupid people” will now have a license to attack comedians after Smith, 53, stormed the Dolby Theater stage on Sunday and slammed Rock, 57, for a joke by GI Jane that referred to the actor’s wife aimed.
“It sets a terrible precedent in so many different ways,” Rogan said on his podcast Tuesday. “It’s a terrible precedent for comedy clubs. Will people now decide to go on stage and smack a comedian?
The actor won the Best Male Actor award for his performance in King Richard and was allowed to deliver a rambling and tearful speech apologizing for his behavior.
The academy will meet Wednesday to decide whether to discipline Smith.
Rogan was stunned by the academy’s decision to allow Smith to go upstairs and collect his Oscar.
“It’s a rare instance that someone is so enormously famous and successful as Will Smith that they literally allowed him not only to win the Oscar, but to get up and take it and give a speech after he was a little comedian attacked on stage.”
Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan, 54, slammed Will Smith, 53, after he attacked Chris Rock, 57, over a joke made by GI Jane at the Oscars on Sunday. Rogan said on his podcast on Tuesday that he’s concerned that “stupid people” now think it’s okay to “go on stage and smack a comedian.”
Smith attacked Rock after making a joke about Jada, the actor’s wife, who was apparently unfazed by the joke when the camera was on her. Though Rock insisted the joke was “funny,” Smith approached the comedian, punched him, and told him to “keep my wife’s name out of your damn mouth.”
Rogan’s guest, MMA fighter Josh Barnett, agreed: “They should have kicked him out.”
“One hundred percent, one hundred percent,” agreed Rogan. “You can’t just smack a man in the face in front of everyone and carry on as usual.
Smith stunned Rock with an open slap after the prankster made fun of Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. When Rock insisted the joke was “funny,” Smith left his seat and punched him, then yelled, “Keep my wife’s name out of your damn mouth.”
“What does it say as a society that the people we look up to — for whatever reason, for better or for worse, we look up to actors — and the Oscars are supposed to show them in their most regal outfits, their best.” ? Behave. And getting violent for something as innocuous as a GI Jane joke.”
Rogan isn’t the only celebrity to blame Smith for his actions. Fellow actor Jim Carrey, 60, said he was “disgusted by the standing ovation” after Smith won his award.
“I felt like Hollywood en masse is just spineless. It really felt like that was a clear indication that we’re not the cool club anymore,” he said on the CBS Morning News.
Benedict Cumberbatch, another Best Actor nominee, as well as Best Director nominee Paul Thomas Anderson and actress Maya Rudolph were some of the stars behind Smith’s win. Venus and Serena Williams, whose father Smith played in King Richard, also stood.
Smith apologized for his actions on Instagram, writing that his “conduct” was “unacceptable and inexcusable.”
“This is a healing season and that’s what I’m here for,” the actress posted on Instagram on Tuesday, two days after the incident that stunned millions of viewers
Rock made a joke about Jada’s haircut, comparing her to GI Jane
Carrey, who briefly overlapped with Rock on Fox’s In Living Color in the early ’90s, claimed Rock didn’t press charges about the slap because he “didn’t want the trouble” and suggested Smith should have been arrested.
“I would have announced this morning that I’m suing Will for $200 million because this video will be there forever. It will be ubiquitous. This insult will go on for a very long time,” Carrey said.
The Mask actor seemed to imply that expressing disapproval of the joke, saying something on Twitter, or even yelling out from the audience wasn’t an overstatement — but what Smith ended up doing crossed the line.
“You don’t have the right to go on stage and punch someone in the face for saying words,” Carrey said.
The Ace Ventura star hinted that something “was going on” within Smith that caused him to do it and that he was acting selfishly.
“It didn’t escalate, it came out of nowhere because there’s something about Will that’s frustrated and I wish him the best, I really do,” Carrey said. “I have nothing against Will Smith, he did a great job.
“It cast a shadow over everyone’s bright moment, a lot of people worked really hard to get to this place,” added the Truman Show star. “It’s not an easy task to go through all the things you have to go through when you’re nominated for an Oscar. It is a gauntlet of devotion. It was just a selfish moment.’
Carrey’s comments come as The View host Whoopi Goldberg, who is also a member of the academy’s board of directors, said she believes Smith could keep his Oscar, but “faced great consequences because nobody agrees with what’s happening.” is”.
Disciplinary action could include anything from requiring Smith to return his Oscar to the most severe punishment – suspension from the Academy – that would place Smith alongside Harvey Weinstein and Bill Crosby, both of whom were expelled for sexual misconduct.
Goldberg doubled down on her promise to fine Smith during Tuesday’s show, saying, “There are consequences. There are big consequences because no one agrees with what happened. Nobody, nobody, nobody.”
The host also explained that producer Will Packer decided not to remove Smith from the event “because that would have been another 15 [to] 20 minute explanation of why we take the black man out five seconds before deciding if he won an Oscar or not.’
‘I believe [producer] Will Packer made the right decision, he said let’s get to the rest so we can deal with it wholeheartedly,” Goldberg said, adding, “This isn’t the first time craziness has happened on stage, but this is the first time we’ve seen someone attack someone on stage.
Goldberg also addressed why no one comforted Rock after the incident, while several people appeared to support Smith.
“What I also have to say to people is that the reason nobody got up to comfort Chris is because they didn’t want to let anyone on the stage … There were people there for Chris,” she said.
She added that the reason people went to Smith was “people were like, oh my god, is he on a break? Do we have to get him out? What do we have to do?’
Two days after the incident, Jada, 50, finally broke her silence with an Instagram post that read, “This is a season of healing and I’m here for it.” She has kept quiet since Sunday night’s dramatic events.