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'Will Smith Slap!' Transcript:
David Bozell: Well, I appreciate the Oscars for being honest, because they promised gay at the outset of last night's show, and I think they delivered. I mean, if you were playing on like Family Feud and they had like a top 10 things, signs of being gay, wouldn't a male-to-male open hand slap be on that list? I mean, that would be in one of the top 10, right?
The host, Amy Schumer, who I know, Wanda Sykes, who I know, and the third girl, who I've never seen or ever heard of. They took a dig at Florida on what they call, "Don't Say Gay" bill. And they promised that the Academy Awards are going to be gay, and sure enough, I think that's kind of homosexual - is an open hand slap from Will Smith to Chris Rock.
David Bozell here, ForAmerica, I am your conductor for today. Obviously, everyone's talking about what went down last night. I was asleep and then my phone started blowing up with all these texts about did you see? Did you see? Did you see? And then everyone's, and then I go on Twitter and all this other stuff trying to figure out if it was real, and I've just kind of immediately concluded that it was.
I wish more people were upset about the border than this stupidity, but such is life and such as the nature of television media today. I'll give Hollywood credit, though, because I've never really paid attention to these award shows.
And this year, I saw a little bit of that DiCaprio movie, the end of the world thing, couldn't even finish it. I was stunned when I saw that it was nominated for best picture. It was terrible.
The Power of the Dog, the gay western, I stuck with that for about 12 minutes before I figured out what it was supposed to be about. Bailed out of that one. Couldn't even tell you the name or what the best picture of the year movie. Was that CODA? Couldn't even tell you what that even is other than the name of the Led Zeppelin album Coda.
But I'll give Hollywood credit for cementing for me what I've always kind of thought, which is, I mean, how dare these guys? This is the Left coast that loves to lecture you as to who you should be and the type of person that you should be. And considers flyover country kind of the great unwashed. Don't have any respect for you, the audience, or what makes America great. And they love to lecture about who they think that you ought to be and the type of person that you ought to be.
And when the moment hits, never mind that their only real talent is pretending to be somebody else. But when the opportunity arises for them to kind of defend one of their own, and Chris Rock is one of their own. He's hosted that darn show before. Multiple times. He starred alongside them in films and SNL. He's helped make stars out of some of these guys. To sit there and watch Will Smith slap him, do nothing, and then to give him an award for best actor, I guess. And then to give him a standing ovation and not condemn him. And I have not heard, not seen one word of condemnation from any of Will Smith's colleagues regarding Will Smith. They don't do anything when he slaps Chris Rock.They give him the prestigious prize. They give him a standing ovation. And then last night, they go out and party with the dude at these afterparties.
Photo: Alex Finnis
I saw a clip going around of him at the, I guess, the Variety or maybe Vanity Fair. I forget which one, one of the Vs and they're singing "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It." And he's happy as a clam. Where I'm a little sympathetic for Will Smith is, I wish he wasn't so bloody sensitive about his career. I mean, the guy's done some good stuff.
He's not Laurence Olivier by any stretch or Marlon Brando by any stretch, but he's got some really cool films out there. I Am Legend is a good movie. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air basically took over the mantle for Bill Cosby, in terms of bringing black entertainers into primetime with the terrific cast and a terrific show. Funny, with a lot of life lessons thrown in there. That's why it lasted. How long did Fresh Prince last? 10 years, maybe? I mean, it's still on reruns. I mean, he's done good. He's got a lot of accolades. He's portrayed Muhammad Ali, which is like one of the hardest, talk about, and he's said it, and I've heard him talk about how hard it was to make that film. But he feels jaded.
And that joke that Chris Rock threw at his wife, I mean, I don't know. I think it's pretty benign. It's kind of a compliment in some ways. I mean, G.I. Jane, played by Demi Moore. She's one of the most beautiful women in the world. Well, G.I. Jane was a movie made that was what? 1990 something. And Demi Moore stars in it. And it's a woman going out to be in the Marines. She ends up having to shave her head. It was really controversial at the time, because Demi Moore was just like this pinnacle of beauty. She had just come off of, what was that movie that she was with Woody Harrelson in? The Proposal? Indecent Proposal? And then she goes off and does this military thing, military movie. And when she shaves her head, it was culturally a little bit of a shock. And Chris Rock tells Jada Pinkett Smith looking forward to seeing you in G.I. Jane Two. I don't know why you get all bent out of shape about that.
Maybe Chris Rock didn't even know that she has alopecia, but you think if she stars in her own reality show, where she does, Pinkett Smith does, and she's talked about it there. And I presume she's joked about it there, just to keep her sanity. You got to lean into that. You got to lean into the joke. You just can't all be life is terrible, life is hard, life is unfair. Look what's happened to me. So, here's the big moment, this is unedited for those with virgin ears here.
Chris Rock: Y'all got to see it. It's really good. You know who's got the hardest job tonight? Javier Bardem and his wife are both nominated. Now, if she loses, he can can't win. He is praying that Will Smith wins, like please.
David Bozell: So, he's made one husband-wife joke right there. Okay?
Chris Rock: Oh, Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2. Can't wait to see it. Alright?
David Bozell: Ha, ha, ha. Everyone laughs.
Chris Rock: It's. That was a nice one. Okay. I'm out here. Uh-oh, Richard. Oh, wow. Wow! Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me.
Will Smith: Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth!
Chris Rock: Wow, Dude.
Will Smith: Yes.
Chris Rock: It was a G.I. Jane joke.
Will Smith: Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth!
Chris Rock: I'm going to, okay? So, I could, oh, okay. That was a greatest night in the history of television. Okay.
David Bozell: I don't see where Will Smith is defended. I mean, I can on the surface, he's defending his wife, but there's 1,001 ways to do that without open hand slapping a guy. And there's 1,001 ways that could have been done in the moment. And I'm not a huge Chris Rock fan at all. I'm not defending him.
Here's a guy that in his act has called for white kids to be shot, so that white mothers could be seen crying on television. This is Chris Rock now. I don't have any love lost there. And his early stuff is good and some of the stuff he's done, you know, SNL is pretty good. But he's not God's gift to comedy, but he has hosted that thing a number of times, and presumably was one of them.
But here's, I mean, here's the thing that kind of killed. Well, at the end of the day, I don't care, because I don't watch a lot of these films, but Smith has kind of killed the Oscars for once and for all, because unless they lean into this and make fun of it in the following months, and then in next year's show, no host or presenter is ever going to be allowed to make fun of one of the participants in the audience for fear of being slapped on national television.
Mark my words on this one, they won't make fun of each other because of what happened to Chris Rock, but they'll spend next year's show and the subsequent years after that, making fun of you, making fun of flyover country, because you're not there to bitch slap them back. They'll make fun of those who pay for the tickets, who go to the shows, who feed them the income to have this lifestyle. They'll make fun of them during the show, but they won't poke fun at each other now.
This is one of the reasons why the ratings have just been in the tank. And then there was a blip last night when this moment went viral. They went from about 20 some odd million two years ago to 10 million almost dropped in half last year. And then last night they got up to 13, but I would venture to guess that it was after 11 o'clock everybody started to, the word had gone out.
I'd like to congratulate Will Smith for just putting the Oscars out of its misery, because they won't make fun of each other anymore. Lest you get slapped in the face.
And Rock, I think, learned a valuable lesson last night - he had no friends in the audience. I mean, nobody came up and defended him. I think that's got to be one of the things that goes through his head. It's like, okay. I've made some of these guys famous. I've hosted this award show a couple times. I've made them look good, a lot of these guys on Saturday Night Live. Brought them into my films and my projects. He's done a lot of the movies with Sandler himself. So, he knows by extension that crowd. And I think he learned last night, he had no friends in that building.
If it was The Rock, there's no chance Will Smith does that. If it was like Dave Bautista, one of the guys from Avengers, the big guy from Avengers, no chance. Will Smith would not have done that to Ricky Gervais. Yeah, that's a good point. I don't know. Yeah, I don't think so either. Would he have done it to The Rock? Would he have done it to Jason Momoa? Doubt it. Anybody bigger than him? Doubt it.
So that's why I really don't, I can't really take his side with regards to defending his wife's honor, which I'm typically be down with.
Give Chris Rock credit man for standing up there and just taking it and moving along with the show. And he had to have been in shock.
But thank you, Will Smith, you have put the Oscars out of its misery. It will continue in its death spiral, because it won't know how to get out of its own way. They won't allow anybody making fun of any of the participants any longer. Everybody will be afraid to. And so, what they'll do, they'll just make fun of America. And no one wants to put up with that crap. Alright, over now.