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When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars for mocking his wife’s medical condition, the internet entered a 24-hour-long concussive state. Almost everything was about the slap — at first jokes, then takes, then articles attempting to explore the depths of what happened, and what it means for society.
The slap is the perfect catalyst to make social media go completely insane, not simply because of the popularity of the Oscars, but because it involved a surprising, norm-defying event. The Oscars are well-known as being a flaccid, drab celebration of (in many cases) the celebration of a very specific kind of movie, one that critics call “important” or “a breath of fresh air” or something or rather.
These events have always had a degree of simulated chaos — mostly in the form of people reading out the wrong winner (there was also one streaker and Samuel L Jackson got caught complaining about losing) — but there was always a set tone and implicit agreement that things happened in a certain way in a certain order. The decorum of The Oscars — an increasingly meaningless circus of not-quite-qualitative evaluations — was always counted on the professional actors in the audience to not get up and cause problems.
Except Will Smith did, and he did so in a way that was equal parts chaotic and organized. He cracked Chris Rock in the face, sat back down and then yelled that he should “keep [Jada Pinkett Smith’s] name out of his fucking mouth” — twice! — and then went on to win an Oscar not long after. It is utterly incredible that this…
