THE UPSIDE OF TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK

MY THOUGHTS ON ‘THE SLAP’ FIVE DAYS IN

Sunday night I went to bed so damn angry. I was ugly-mad at Will Smith for assaulting one of my friends for many years, and truly one of the greatest stand-ups of all times. I was enraged at the Academy who didn’t throw him out, and livid at the big shots and my fellow Academy members in the audience who gave him a standing ovation minutes later.

I did what any tough guy would do. I promptly sent out a text to my something like eleven followers that night saying so.

I was still irate the next morning remembering he apologized to everyone in his speech but Chris, then went out and partied like a teenager with seemingly no remorse for what he’d done.

I was angry at Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes for not using their stage time and microphones to sharply condone anyone for attacking a fellow stand-up.

I was already fed up with the Academy by then after the way they treated Kevin Hart a few years back, and now this? 

Yet in the last few days, I’ve started to see it all a little differently. Especially after all the support came out for Chris starting with that incredibly eloquent Jim Carrey response, and from comics like Joe Rogan and Jeff Ross. The tide turned and we heard by Wednesday how nauseated everyone apparently was by events that Sunday night.

Yet, still, all the talk about what kind of signal and message this incident sends to our kids and to people in society based on what Will’s horrible behavior displayed is shining the spotlight on the wrong actions.

I think we need to turn the drama flame down on the incident. Bring it way down. I say focus on Chris Rock’s handling of this thing. Not Will Smith’s.

That’s the message to send to our kids. To the schools.

Anyone that knows me knows I love Jada Pinkett. I’ve known her for years. 

I made the film Reign Over Me with her and I think she’s a beautiful, funny, warm, special, woman. I know her husband. He did a rotten, ugly, despicable thing. He messed up. He’s not an evil person though. There’s no case history of that. Will Smith’s a good guy who had one hell of a bad night.  Who knows what the hell he was thinking?

No one is going to pay the price more than he is. He has apologized, and he will some more, I am sure of it.  Maybe it’s good that he resigned from the Academy. Who knows? Not me.

So the A-listers and The Academy wonks and Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes didn’t stand up and act like heroes sticking up for Chris, and stand-up comedy, as I’d of liked them to.  Okay, but I’ll bet some of them wish they did, and guess what, we’re all human. We make mistakes.

It’s really time to whip out our Barak Obama teachable moment hymn books and do some soul searching.

Let’s focus on what went right. Let’s look at Chris Rock’s behavior. Someone raised that guy well. I’m proud to be his friend. Proud to be in the same profession as him.

Rock handled himself in a heroic, calm, professional, healthy, grounded, and generous way. This is what I want my kids to take note of. This is what we should be talking about. He walked away from the fire. He made sure the show went on. Any of us that know Chris knows he could have instantly taken fifteen different roads to the center of town to eviscerate Will with funny as hell soul-stealing put-downs. He’s that good. We all saw in his eyes that he was locked and loaded, yet he didn’t go there.  

He could have had him thrown out. He could have pressed charges. (He could have told his parents.) He could have tweeted nasty, pouty, whiny things all night long, like I would have.  He could’ve been spouting all kinds of garbage. He didn’t. He chose a peaceful, calmer path. He chose the way of beauty.

There was a video that came out Wednesday on Tik-Tok. Chris is standing there during Questlove’s speech, and he looks like a little boy.

It looks like his face maybe hurts, his pride’s punctured, he’s puzzled and he’s pissed. He’s confused, but he’s controlled. He keeps himself in check. Concerned for the bigger picture. I’m not saying the guy isn’t angry as hell. I don’t know. He may be. The point is he chose dignity. 

That’s the message of this little play, and we were all taught a lesson in absolute class from a master. 

It’s not about what Will Smith did at the 2022 Oscars that should be go down in history.

It’s what Chris Rock did.

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