There has been just one story dominating the media narrative since Sunday night and that is the right-handed slap delivered by Will Smith to Chris Rock live on stage at the Academy Awards after Smith objected to a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
There have been a wide array of different hot takes on the situation in days which have followed; some lauding Smith for defending his wife’s honour, and others castigating him for feeling that he had the privilege of doing something live on stage in front of hundreds of millions of people for which 99.9% of the rest of us would be arrested.
And speaking to MMA heavyweight Josh Barnett on his podcast, Rogan very much falls into the latter category. Rogan, of course, has enjoyed a successful career in stand-up comedy in addition to his podcasting and commentary careers and speaking to Barnett, vigorously defended Rock’s right to make what he says was a “mild” joke without having to be subjected to violence immediately afterwards.
“That whole scene doing that in that manner, in that place, is a great example of what’s wrong in the glorification of just being able to go up someone and smack them in the face. That whole thing was so weak,” Rogan said.
“That was not an insult. It was the most mild joke about her hairstyle in reference to a movie where a lady shaved her head,” he continued. “The idea that there’s any justification whatsoever of him and smacking him in the face like that… No [there cannot be a justification]. How do you have malicious intent in a mild joke? He was emotionally fragile and he acted on impulse in a staggeringly stupid way.”
Check out the full discussion below:
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