The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was probably really hoping that several days later people would still be talking about the Oscars, but the reasons the Academy Awards are still a topic of conversation are likely not what anybody was hoping for. Will Smith slapping Chris Rock is still a major topic of conversation, but it won’t be getting discussed much on Rock’s current stand-up tour, at least not for a little while.
Tickets to Chris Rock’s stand-up tour have reportedly been selling extremely well following the Oscar night event, compared to how they had been selling beforehand. When Rock took the stage for a pair of sold out shows in Boston on Wednesday night, his first since the Oscars, he was greeted with a pair of standing ovations to start the shows according to CNN. He told the audience he was getting “misty” over the warm reception, but he also told the crowd that if they came to hear jokes about the slap, they would be disappointed, Rock explained…
I don't have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I had like a whole show I wrote before this weekend. And I'm still kind of processing what happened, so at some point I'll talk about that shit. And it'll be serious and it'll be funny, but right now I'm going to tell some jokes.
While some certainly may have come to the show hoping to hear the first jokes about the Oscars, most were probably more than happy to just hear a set from Chris Rock. The buying of tickets was possibly, like the standing ovations, an act of support for the comedian.
At some point we can be sure that Chris Rock will talk about the Oscars and we can be pretty sure the jokes will hit hard, but Rock also says it will be serious. While distance will allow for the event to have some levity, part of the reason it has captured so many people is that it’s not that funny at all. Rock decided against pressing charges following the event which could have been classified as assault. That doesn’t necessarily mean this is over for him.
People have very strong feelings about who was in the wrong, or more likely, who was more in the wrong, as there is plenty of blame to go around. Everybody from Oscar co-host Wanda Sykes to Jim Carrey have made public comments about what they think of what happened. One voice that has remained largely silent, is Jada Pinkett-Smith. While Will Smith has apologized to Rock, The Academy is reportedly taking the whole thing quite seriously, even considering expelling Will Smith, who just won the Academy Award for Best Actor, from its ranks.
