Oscars 2022: Chris Rock is Under Fire for More Than Just His Jada Pinkett Smith Joke
The 2022 Academy Awards might be over, but the controversy is just beginning. Though the Oscars ceremony featured several sweet and memorable takeaways, Chris Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith led to a viral moment sticking around.
In the days since the Oscars, pop culture fans are discussing not only the Rock-Smith confrontation but what came after it. Filmmaker Joseph Patel and others aren’t happy with another Rock joke from the ceremony.
Chris Rock’s joke at the 2022 Oscars started a firestorm
Everything appeared fine at the 2022 Oscars until Chris Rock stepped onstage to present the award for Best Documentary. During his brief monologue, Rock made a joke directed at Jada Pinkett Smith, who was sitting close to the stage, next to her husband, Will Smith. “Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it,” Rock joked, taking a jab at Smith’s shaven head. The actor, who has admitted to dealing with alopecia, which causes hair loss, rolled her eyes at the joke and didn’t seem amused.
Seconds later, Smith strode on stage. He slapped Rock across the face before walking back to his seat and yelling at Rock to “Keep my wife’s name out ya f—ing mouth.” The incident quickly went viral.
Though Smith later issued an apology to Rock, people haven’t been able to stop talking about the confrontation. While many defended Rock, slamming Smith for the way he behaved, others posited Rock was out of line for making a joke about a sensitive medical condition.
Some feel the ‘Summer of Soul’ documentary team didn’t get ‘their moment’
The slap dominated social media and cast a pall over the moments that followed — specifically, the Oscar Rock took the stage to present. The award for Best Documentary Feature went to the documentary Summer of Soul, a production directed by Amir “Questlove” Thompson and produced by Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent, and David Dinerstein.
Even as the four filmmakers went up on stage to accept their awards, some fans noted that the group didn’t really get their chance to shine. In a March 30 tweet, one critic called out how Rock ushered them up to accept their award by calling them “Ahmir Thompson and four white guys.”
“I have been holding my tongue…but I have to support the Summer of Soul doc winners in calling out how the whole thing did them dirty,” Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote on Twitter. “I get that some people come to the Oscar’s all the time & don’t need validation etc but some folks are having their moment.”
Joseph Patel responded with a viral Twitter thread
Producer Joseph Patel was one of those involved in Summer of Soul. He had a big problem with how Rock introduced him and his compatriots, taking to Twitter to post a series of tweets discussing the incident. He later deleted the thread. But according to The New York Post, one of the tweets featured Patel saying that he was “angry” with Rock for “robbing” the team of the moment they worked hard for.
Patel pointed out in another tweet that far from being a “white guy,” he’s actually South Asian. “The reason that makes me SO SO VERY ANGRY is because I was so proud to be one of a handful of South Asians to have ever won an Oscar in the history of the award.”
