The View chimes in on Chris Rock’s Netflix special by addressing Will Smith’s Oscar-night slap in the face.
During Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, which aired live on the streaming platform on Saturday, the comedian covered a range of topics, but the most anticipated was saved for last when he cast Smith out of the Academy TV show for the infamous confrontation Awards 2022 and his retired wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and takes aim at the couple’s marital woes.
“He responded to a $40 million Netflix special, which I think is brilliant,” Sunny Hostin said at the beginning of Monday’s episode of the daytime talk show. “That was his truth, that’s how he experienced it.”
Ana Navarro supported this statement, saying: “He has the right to speak his truth. I’m all the happier that he makes money with it. I think the timing has everything to do with the Oscars being next week and the fact that it’s a year away. I think the show was bloody fun.”
While the hosts mostly praised Rock for many of his jokes, some felt certain topics should have been taboo. But Navarro explained that “he’s a comedian, so we’re not going to agree on everything, but baby, laugh all the way to the bank.”
“By the way, he kept her name out of his mouth [during the special]’ she added jokingly. “He called her all kinds of other things, but he didn’t say ‘Jada.'”
Whoopi Goldberg ended the discussion by also praising the comedian, saying, “He’s not afraid to say how he feels.”
“His ability to say what he sees is amazing and guess what, this situation is never going to find a really good way to calm down. It just isn’t,” she added. “There is no justification for what happened.”
Goldberg, a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors, previously spoke about one of the most memorable nights in Oscars history. Before the academy announced that it had banned Smith from attending the Oscars and other academy events for 10 years, Goldberg theorized what might have provoked the actor’s behavior at the time, saying, “I think it there was probably a lot of stuff built up. … I think he had one of those moments where it was just, ‘Just stop.’ I understand not everyone behaves under pressure the way we would like them to. Some people just snap. He snapped.”
Chris Rock: Selective Outrage is available to stream on Netflix.