Will Slapped Chris

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards because Chris Rock made a cruel joke about Will Smith’s wife’s hair loss. Will Smith’s wife has Alopecia, and according to reports of those who were watching her reaction, the joke upset her.

Ta da.

That’s all there really is to that deal that should concern you and me.

It was such a stupid story that it took me a while to even know how I felt about it, or if I felt anything at all. I mean, Will Smith and Jada Pinket Smith have been all over the tabloids with their voluntary confessions of marital infidelity. I already know more than I want to know, or that I should know, about their 24-year marriage.

I wish them well, and I am entirely sympathetic with Mrs Smith so far as her illness is concerned. 

Chris Rock, on the other hand, is a funny guy. His jokes can be raw, and oftentimes, they aren’t to my taste. But, he’s a comedian. Like court jesters from time immemorial, that earns him a lot of latitude. Even Henry the VIII was able to take a joke from his fool, Will Sommers. 

After very little reflection, and quite a bit of disgust about the whole spectacle, I finally came to what I believe is my lasting reaction. Here it is.

I’m tired of the trashy behavior. 

I mean, I’m all through with people in high places degrading every public event in this country by parading  their lack of impulse control as if it was a badge of merit. I’ve seen enough trashy behavior in the past 6 years to fill my lifetime quota, and I’m all done with it. 

I don’t have an opinion about the merits of Chris Rock’s joke except to say that it was a joke by a professional comedian at an event where he was expected to do what professional comedians do, which is tell jokes, and Will Smith is a professional entertainer and public figure. Mr and Mrs Smith have no problem parading their infidelities before the cameras and talking in detail about the most intimate aspects of their marriage and lives on national tv. 

So I don’t regard them as either private citizens or vulnerable introverts who are too delicate for the rougher aspects of the game they are playing professionally. I understand that losing her hair is a painful experience for Jada Smith. I say that as a woman who has had her own experiences with the mutilating effects of illness. 

I think Chris Rock’s joke was cruel and unnecessary. I found it offensive rather than funny. 

But — and I say this as strongly as I can — I am sick of the trashy behavior in America’s public venues. I am all through with famous and powerful people showing me they’re crazy. If our privileged class can’t behave in public, they need to spare the rest of us their spectacle and stay home.