Chris Rock has spoken on the notorious Will Smith smack he received at the 2022 Academy Awards due to a joke he uttered.
The New Yorker began his tour with Dave Chappelle this week in Liverpool, England at the M&S Bank Arena, and he explained what the slap heard ’round the world was all about.
According to Rock, Smith assaulted him for a joke that could’ve been much worse. “Did that shit hurt? God damn right,” Rock said (via Daily Mail). “The motherfucker hit me over a bullshit joke, the nicest joke I ever told.”
Chappelle had more to say about Smith during the Liverpool show, saying: “Will did the impression of a perfect person for 30 years, and he ripped his mask off and showed us he was as ugly as the rest of us. Whatever the consequences are. … I hope he doesn’t put his mask back on again, and lets his real face breathe. I see myself in both men.”
Chris Rock has spoken of the slap in the past throughout his stand-up acts. The famed comic spoke about how painful it was to take a punch like a champion at a July event in New Jersey.
“Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face,” Rock said., “I’m not a victim. Yeah, that shit hurt, motherfucker. But I shook that shit off and went to work the next day. I don’t go to the hospital for a paper cut.”
Chris Rock had just made a G.I. Jane joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett when the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star marched onstage and smacked him right across the face at the awards show.