The Oscar Slap was Topic #1 on ABC’s The View today, with moderator – and former Oscar host – Whoopi Goldberg saying Will Smith “overreacted,” Joy Behar commenting that “comedians are in danger everywhere,” Ana Navarro decrying “men behaving badly” and Sunny Hostin describing Smith’s “toxic masculinity” as “not a show of love [but] a show of violence.”
“I think it was a lot of stuff probably built up,” Goldberg said, noting that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have been the butt of jokes for various reasons for years, including previous jabs from Chris Rock, who was on the receiving end of Smith’s violence last night. “I think he overreacted…I think he had one of those moments where it was like G.D. it, just stop. I get it, not everybody acts the way we would like them to act under pressure. And he snapped.”
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“Sometimes you get to a point when you behave badly,” Goldberg said. “I myself have behaved badly on occasion.”
Behar said that while she was watching the incident, “I was thinking comedians are in danger everywhere. They want us to be edgy, to go out there and say what everyone’s thinking…and then they get mad.” Her advice to Smith: “If you’re upset about something, walk off.”
Added Goldberg about Rock, “I do think it’s wonderful that Chris did not take it to that other place that he could have done.”
Navarro said, “Hitting somebody is a crime, a crime of assault.” She said while she felt Rock’s joke “was a lame joke, a joke in very poor taste,” the joke and the slap were “not equivalent.”
“In context,” Navarro said, “Jada has alopecia and that’s why she shaved her head. She’s been very public about it, very vulnerable about it, but nothing, nada condones violence at this point. Nada.”
Hostin then weighed in: “I was embarrassed for Will, I was horrified for Chris Rock. I thought Chris was the one who deserved an apology.” She said Rock took “the high road” after the slap, and said of Smith, “I think Will was immature, i think he was childish and he was violent. That’s something we tell our children not to do, our children would be suspended from school for that.”
Hostin also said she was surprised by the standing ovation Smith received after his acceptance speech for his King Richard Oscar win. “I’m surprised he was not escorted out,” she said, and wondered if the Academy will let Smith keep his Oscar.
“We’re not going to take that Oscar from him,” Goldberg said. “There will be consequences I’m sure, but I don’t think that’s what they’re going to do, particularly because Chris said ‘Listen, I’m not pressing any charges.’”
Behar closed out one of the Hot Topic segments by comparing the Oscar incident with last week’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson. “Judge Jackson probably wanted to jump up and bitch slap that Ted Cruz but she didn’t,” Behar joked. “She remained professional.”
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