Chris Rock said Will Smith’s Oscar slap “still hurts” a little over a year later in his new Netflix comedy special.
The 58-year-old comedian opened up about Smith slapping him on stage after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair at last year’s awards.
“Ya’ll know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith,” the comedian joked. “People are like did it hurt? It still hurts! I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ear.”
“But I’m not a victim baby, you will never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying, you will never see it. Never going to happen,” he added. “I took that hit like Pacquiao.”
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The special, which marks Netflix’s first live stream, took place Saturday night at the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore, Maryland.
Rock’s new comedy special marks the first time he has spoken extensively about being slapped. He said at a previous interview just four days after the 2022 Oscars, that he is still “processing” what happened duringthe award show.
A month later, he reportedly jokingly said he would keep addressing the slap until he gets “paid.”
Later in the special, Rock said Smith’s anger was misguided and should be focused on his wife, who admitted to having an affair on a 2020 episode of her Facebook show Red Table Talk.
“We’ve all been cheated on. None of us have ever been interviewed by the person we cheated on on television. She hurt him way more than he hurt me,” he said.
Smith issued a public apology and reached out to Rock after the incident to apologize. In November 2022, Trevor Noah told The Daily Show that the slap was the result of “bottled rage.”
