Slap-Happy

By Jake Lankford. Written on March 30th 2022.

It was the slap heard around the world. Will Smith walked up to Chris Rock at the Oscars after a joke Rock made about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia, Smith smacked Rock right across the face and yelled “Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth!”

Now, it could be left there, but since the media loves to give trainwrecks attention, this snowballed into a flurry of thinkpieces, increasingly absurd Twitter takes and opinion pieces. The one take that is a connecting thread between all of these is that Chris Rock’s joke is on the spectrum of verbal violence.

Yes, some opinion writers put this dumb joke, “G.I. Jane 2,” more specifically, on the same spectrum that includes Nazi rhetoric, racist slurs, homophobia and all sorts of other verbal nasties that have well-documented consequences. This is an incredibly absurd comparison to say, for a variety of reasons, but the big one is the mere idea that this joke, this dumb joke, is on that same spectrum.

Placing this joke on that spectrum very much trivializes and minimizes the sheer damage violent and abusive rhetoric does to marginalized people and communities. A homophobic slur is not the same as a dumb joke, and should not be treated as such, same with, again, Nazi rhetoric. Violent language and rhetoric is on that spectrum for a very good reason, part of that reason is it is not in jest, it is purposefully targeted at vulnerable people and groups.

So yes, while Rock’s joke was in poor taste, placing it on the spectrum of violent language is absolutely absurd and trivializing of the actual violent language targeted towards marginalized communities. There are a dozen and one ways to talk about this joke, placing it on this spectrum is not one of those ways.