Chris Rock may have conducted himself questionably on stage before he was struck by Will Smith at the Oscars — was that joke over the line? It’s a debate that won’t end.
But a near consensus view holds that Rock conducted himself in an exemplary manner after the slap — which he took and moved on from almost as if it were a scripted moment. (So much so that many in the audience believed it was a scripted moment, until Smith sat back down and started yelling at the stage from his seat — nobody was scripting that dialogue for Smith.)
Another thing that’s notable about Rock’s reaction was that he never at any moment looked scared. Stunned, yes, but never scared, even though afterwards he was to say he just got “slapped by Muhammad Ali.” (Smith famously played Ali in a biopic, as you already know.)
Chris Rock, not scared? It’s familiar, certainly. And that’s because in 2004 Rock returned to the stage after a long absence with a powerful show by that very name: Chris Rock, Never Scared. And what wasn’t Rock scared of then?
The reaction to his material. Because in that show Rock set out to skewer America, not least about its obsession with money. “Americans worship money” more than anything else, he said, which was blasphemy for some to hear, though obviously true as he recounts it.
(Note: The Kardashians are on primetime TV this week for a big interview with Robin Roberts — they will not sing or dance, but will instead perform a narrative of money and acquisition.)
Above are a few video segments from Rock’s Never Scared, which in many ways addresses incisively the ills that still plague American Society.
