Amy Schumer calls the slap seen around the world — Will Smith hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars — a “f***ing bummer.”
The actress and comedian, who co-hosted the Oscars with Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall, performed her first standup since the drama on Saturday in Las Vegas. In it, she referred to Smith as “Ali” and said the slap “says so much about toxic masculinity.”
“I don’t even know what to say about the Oscars, like I really don’t know what to say, I have no jokes about it,” the Life & Beth star said at the Aces of Comedy series at the Mirage Theater. “All I can say is that I don’t know if you saw this but Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. Did you read that in your news feed?”
Schumer shared how it played out for her as Smith stormed to the stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock for a G.I. Jane joke made at Jada Pinkett Smith’s expense. Smith then returned to his seat and screamed profanities at a stunned Rock.
“I was kind of feeling myself … and then all of a sudden Ali was making his way up,” she quipped, referring to Smith’s role in the 2001 film about Muhammad Ali. “And it was just a f***ing bummer. All I can say is that it was really sad, and I think it says so much about toxic masculinity. It was really upsetting.”
Schumer went on to say the “best way to comfort ourselves” was to tell the Oscars jokes she was prohibited from saying during the show. They included swipes taken at Joe Rogan, James Franco (over sexual misconduct allegations) and Alec Baldwin (“Don’t Look Up is the name of a movie, more like don’t look down the barrel of [Baldwin’s] shotgun”).
She said she was told by her lawyer not to say those jokes at the Oscars.
“I wasn’t allowed to say any of that but you can just come up and [clock] someone,” she said.
Schumer, who made history Oscars night as it was the first time three women hosted the show, posted about the drama the day after the show.
In the now-deleted post, she wrote that she was “still triggered and traumatized” by what went down. “I love my friend @chrisrock and believe he handled it like a pro. Stayed up there and gave an Oscar to his friend @questlove and the whole thing was so disturbing. So much pain in @willsmith. Anyway I’m still in shock and stunned and sad. I’m proud of myself and my co-hosts. But, yeah. Waiting for this sickening feeling to go away from what we all witnessed.”
After deleting that, she shared an “out of office” message which was a photo of her with her son.
In addition to her new Hulu show, Life & Beth, Schumer is set to host Netflix Is a Joke: The Festival live comedy fest on May 6. She’ll then go on the road doing more standup on her Whore Tour, which kicks off in August.
Smith has publicly apologized to Rock for the slap, saying he became angry about the G.I. Jane barb because Pinkett Smith suffers from hair loss.
The Academy launched an investigation into the incident. Smith has subsequently resigned as an Academy member, giving another apology.
