https://www.themarysue.com/no-will-smith-slap-was-not-oscars-ugliest-moment-ever/
From Seth MacFarlane's “We Saw Your Boobs" to the treatment of Hattie McDaniel to the standing ovation for Roman Polanski, the Academy Awards has seen far uglier moments than what happened Sunday.
Except they are not uglier because they don't involve physical violence.
Do you know the implications of millions of domestic violence perpetrators seeing Will Smith hit someone because of "words"? Then receive an award and standing ovation? Use your brain.
It sends a message that whacking someone in the head is an okay response to a bad joke.
That the "show must go on" because Chris Rock is a man and should take it, is disgusting. If it were a female comedian that Will Smith hit, the show would have cut to a break, and Will Smith arrested.
The Will Smith slap is BY FAR the ugliest Oscars moment. Case closed.
And btw, perhaps you've forgotten that cartoonists were murdered for drawing pictures that offended some people. Will Smith's violence against comedians is just a lower branch on the same tree.
~Except they are not uglier because they don't involve physical violence.
Try looking further into this article before making that statement:
John Wayne tried to assault Sacheen Littlefeather for talking about inequality and oppressionshare
In 1973, Marlon Brando boycotted the Oscars and tapped Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse his Best Actor award, won for his role in The Godfather, on his behalf. She spoke about the recent standoff between Native Americans and federal law enforcement at Wounded Knee, as well as “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry.”
She was met with a mix of applause and loud boos from the audience. John Wayne, famed Western actor, and self-proclaimed white supremacist, was watching from the wings and reportedly tried to rush the stage.
“During my presentation, he was coming towards me to forcibly take me off the stage, and he had to be restrained by six security men to prevent him from doing so,” Littlefeather said in an interview with Guardian last year.
The key word is "tried", and it was more "forcibly take me off the stage".
That was close, but not the same thing.
I don't care if the key word is "tried" since John Wayne clearly came with the intent of initiating a physical confrontation of some sort. Just because wasn't able to actually act upon that intent doesn't mean that what happened wasn't at all bad or offensive on its own.
shareWow. An A list actor tried to use physical force and the event security stopped him? Clearly, we in 1973 were far more civilized than the America of today.
Good for them.
And furthermore, what would the CONSEQUENCES for Wayne have been if he hadn't been stopped by security and had slapped Ms. Littlefeather? The main take away I get from the Wayne incident is that they had better security back then and weren't afraid to stop a major celebrity from doing something stupid. Speculating about what Wayne mighta coulda kinda sorta done and what would or wouldn't have the Academy and the cops done about it afterward is irrelevant. Since this didn't happen, it's impossible to prove a negative. What Smith actually did and the real-life reaction to it is the matter at hand. Even by the already low ethical standards of "whataboutism" this is pretty weak sauce.
shareWhen I first saw the slap, I assumed that it was part of a skit or was scripted. It wasn't until Will Smith was accepting the Oscar and was making apologizes for his behavior that it occurred to me that it was legit. If that wasn't the case, then how come security didn't come for Will right after he slapped Chris Rock?
While I'm not attempting to excuse what Will Smith did, what exactly did Sacheen Littlefeather personally do John Wayne that made him badly want to go up on stage and confront her? Ms. Littlefeather unlike Chris Rock, didn't directly acknowledge Wayne or his family. If anything, John Wayne should've been made at Marlon Brando for initiating the whole thing in the very first place.
On the Wayne thing, I don't know how much solid evidence exists as to exactly what happened. We have mainly her account of the event. We don't have video evidence like we do with Will Smith. Also, we don't know for sure of what his intent was or what he would actually have done. Still, Wayne's conservative and racial views (I'm not a fan) are much better known these days, and I've no doubt she had reason to fear for her safety. Now, if Wayne HAD managed to get a hold of her I do think it would have been a lot worse because members of the Academy were pretty sharply divided between an Old Hollywood (more conservative camp) and a New Hollywood (more liberal camp). The Vietnam War was only just winding to a close. You could have literally seen an MLB style bench clearing brawl. It was a very politically charged time and I think this was the first time the Awards had really been politicized that way. We take it in our stride nowadays. Some people may have thought it was some sort of stunt or gag. I am not unsympathetic to what Brando was trying to do, although some (especially at the time) may have thought the Oscars was not the appropriate venue for it. A discussion of the treatment of Native Americans in real life and on film was a fairly recent and live-wire issue for Hollywood back then (again due to Vietnam).
I do have to say I find it distasteful to compare Will Smith's petty pride and personal issues leading to the commission of an actual assault with a potential act of violence caused by disagreement over a substantive political issue. The treatment of Native Americans and alopeica are not equal and it's cynical, self-serving, and disrespectful to make the comparison. In any case, Littlefeather wasn't the one potentially threatening violence. She was, like it or not, exercising free speech.
And how exactly is that worse than a convicted child rapist and fugitive on the lamb in Roman Polanski receiving an award and getting a standing ovation?
https://www.themarysue.com/no-will-smith-slap-was-not-oscars-ugliest-moment-ever/
The actual crime did not take place right there. Don't get me wrong, the standing ovation that Polanski got is horrible, and does show what morally retarded monkeys the Hollywood Elite are, but they were not sitting there like idiots while the guy actually did the rape.
I grant you that if Polanski had committed the rape on stage while event security did nothing, that would have been worse.
> "And how exactly is that worse..."
Um, because one is physical violence, and the other is inappropriate applause.
THAT'S exactly how it's worse.
Got it?
Inappropriate applause which also took place with Will Smith getting his Oscar, I might add. Not only did he assault someone right there at the award ceremony itself, they gave him a standing ovation afterwards.
Also, I don't see how comparing this to other bad incidents is supposed to diminish it. You don't suddenly stop chastising someone for doing something shitty just because shitty things have happened in the past. It's all bad, and none of the incidents described involve physical assault actually taking place at the Oscars.
Yep, the only comparison is as you mentioned - the same brainwashed audience applauding out of habitual ceremonial process and elitist peer pressure. They have as much to answer for as Will Smith. Like people who stand around watching a crime without helping or even condemning it. More people like Jim Carey should speak out, and people in general need to wake up and use their own moral compass rather than look to others for what to do in any given moment.
The point is that let's not pretend that the Academy Awards prior to the Will Smith-Chris Rock slap hasn't contained shameful moments. It's ridiculous for people to say that Chris Rock getting smacked for telling a crass joke about Will Smith's wife's baldness is the worst and most embarrassing thing to ever happen when even more disdainful events happened.
And again, if you we're going to chastise people for applauding Will Smith after the slap then you need to do the same for those people who applauded a convicted child rapist like Roman Polanski when he won the Best Director Oscar. Why are we so selective in things to be outraged over or saying? Child rape and then running away before sentencing and yet, still being awarded by your peers is a far worse offensive than Chris Rock being slapped on stage.
"when even more disdainful events happened"
That's extremely up for debate, and I don't agree. The Academy has been chastised for the Polanski situation, but it happened 20 years ago - obviously it's not going to be at the forefront of people's minds.
What is the ideal scenario in your imaginary world, that we keep pointing out these past misdeeds continuously until the end of time, disregarding current events? Who determines which event is more worthy of being addressed than another... you? If the point is that Hollywood is filled with a bunch of scumbags who do nasty things - I think everyone gets that at this point.
Two high profile celebrities involved in a physical altercation in front of the world like this has never happened before, so yeah, people are going to be discussing it right after it happens. For instance, we're not going to not talk about the Ukraine situation just because there have been other conflicts in the past.
Yeh it's what-about-ism by the person above who mentions Polanski.
The Polanski saga may well be true, but I'd need to waste time looking it up and verifying court dates and awards ceremonies to see whether people clapped with full knowledge he was a guilty rapist.
Apparently he pleaded not guilty, and while waiting sentencing won the award? Who knows, but it's irrelevant.
Films are never the work of one person. Banning the film hurts others. Censorship is wrong. Should we remove the audio track from movies that a sound man worked on who is found guilty of rape? Of course not.
I'll just leave this for consideration:
https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/when-were-the-oscars-classy.4853344/post-80612436share
Mia Farrow is getting dragged because she called it the worst act of violence at the Oscar’s ever. Someone said, is your ex grooming and marrying your daughter and being celebrated by the Oscar’s not violence?
Is Harvey Weinstein’s 100s of awards not being rescinded after raping women who work in movies not violence?
Also people REALLY need to understand that violence does not need to be physical on both sides. You can experience or inflict violence without physical contact.
None of that makes sense. "Awards not being rescinded" is not violence.
All you're doing is *disagreeing* with the scope and details of punishment or repercussions.
It's almost an administrative issue you're raising, as to the details of how big the ban-stick should be and who gets swiped with the ban stick. It has nothing to do with Will Smith smacking the shit out of Chris Rock, correctly described as the worst act of violence at the Oscars ever.
No, this was the worst.
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