Will Smith (right) slapped Chris Rock (left) after the comedian joked about the shorter hairstyle sported by Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Photo: AP
Chris Rock is sick of the blame game.
The comic on Friday (July 29) appeared to reference having been slapped by the Oscar winner at this year’s Academy Awards — this time, just hours after Smith took to Facebook with a long-awaited apology for what quickly came to be known as The Slap Heard Round the World, CNN reports.
“Everybody is trying to a (expletive) victim. If everybody claims to be a victim, then nobody will hear the real victims,” said the Brooklyn, New York-raised funnyman, according to the outlet. “Even me getting smacked by Suge Smith ... I went to work the next day, I got kids.”
Rock later told the audience: “Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face.”
Smith on Friday appeared sombre in a nearly six-minute video he posted to social media, noting that he had “fogged out” by the time he accepted the best actor award for King Richard and failed to apologise to Rock during his speech.
While he apologised to both Rock and his family — including the latter’s younger brother and Smith’s formerly close friend, Tony Rock — as well as his own family, the Hitch star continued to describe the altercation as a form of defense after feeling disrespected — though he clarified he viewed it as unacceptable behavior.
Smith slapped Rock after the comedian joked that the shorter hairstyle sported by Jada Pinkett Smith, who publicly suffers from alopecia, looked akin to G.I. Jane 2.
Rock last weekend made similar remarks during his Holmdel, New Jersey, show, but added at the time that he is “not a victim, (expletive)."
While again noting that he returned to work immediately after the incident, he reportedly said, “Yes, that s— hurt, (expletive). But I shook that s— off.” – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
