Ricky Gervais has spoken candidly about his reaction to the moment at the Oscars where Will Smith slapped Chris Rock following a joke aimed at his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and suggested that the King Richard star wanted to "feel like a man".
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Discussing the situation on Sirius XM with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts, he said: "That joke that Will Smith slapped someone for was the lamest, sweetest joke in the world. No disrespect to Chris Rock, it wasn’t an insult. And she rolled her eyes and that’s it.
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"I was trending for two days and I wasn’t even there. And I had a gig that night, a new material night. So I had to acknowledge it. And I walked out on stage, ‘I’ve got no Will Smith material.’ And it got a big laugh, just because they were thinking it. It was trending on Twitter ‘What would happen if Ricky was hosting it?’ And I said ‘Nothing because I wouldn’t have made about his wife’s hair. I’d have made a joke about her boyfriend.’ And then that trended and made the papers."
Ricky spoke about the incident
He added: "That’s a big thing though. To slap someone at the Oscars, it’s insane. And I still don’t quite know what he was thinking, why he was doing it. I think he wanted to feel like a man."
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Ricky spoke about the situation on SiriusFX
Will has since apologised to the academy, and to Chris, following the incident. Meanwhile, Chris has mentioned the incident in his stand-up tour, but he has yet to share his reaction to the shocking moment, instead joking: "Don't expect me to talk about the [expletive]. I'll talk about it at some point … on Netflix. Your tickets were expensive, but not that expensive."
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