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KATHMANDU, APRIL 19
I thought about various titles for this writing - Slapping Will, Jilted Will, Wilful Will, but Boomerang sounded the most appropriate for what happened to cheated Will Smith after slapping Chris Rock at the recent Oscar.
What could have been Smith's moment of ultimate glory turned out to be the lowest point of his life that could destroy his public life and career.
The rumblings have started with cops knocking at his door and the Oscars taking punitive measures, including banning him for 10 years and taking back the best actor award.
After comedian Rock's somewhat humiliating personal joke, Smith walked up the stage and gave him a tight slap across the face in the heat of the moment.
It seemed like a logical reaction from a protective husband whose wife has been a subject of a bad joke. The slap is not only about the joke of a bald head. It goes deeper than that.
The Oscar viewers around the world heard the sound of the slap. In the meantime, Rock has become the victim of aggression, despite his inappropriate joke, and has begun to enjoy unprecedented ticket sales at his comedy shows.
Later that evening, Smith received his best actor award for his gritty portrayal of the tennis ace, William sisters' father, in King Richard.
Sadly, it did not take long for the slap to boomerang on Smith in the most cruelly unexpected ways. The punishments came one by one, culminating in his 10-year ban from Oscar and forfeiture of the silverware for the best actor. It turned out to be one of the most expensive slaps in the moment of madness.
What would have happened if he had kept quiet about the joke? Everyone would have enjoyed his humiliation of his wife's straying ways with their son's friend.
The year's Oscar will go down in history as one of the most infamies.
With comedian Rock on the mike, it had the trappings of a great Oscar on the anvil, especially after the COVID-19 disruption followed by the ongoing Ukraine-Russia fracas and the tragic displacement of nearly five million Ukrainians.
As the Oscar Award kept progressing into the pregnant night, Rock made a cardinal error of judgement, joking, as all comedians do, at the cost of someone, Jada and her paramour.
On the surface, Rock's target of the joke turned out to be Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett's bald head, the result of Alopecia.
It could not have been so much about the mention of Pinkett's bald head.
The reference to the tonsured head with her paramour August Alsina must have triggered Smith's rage. Nobody likes to hear jokes or allusions about their spouse's perfidious infidelities, not even at the cost of the ultimate glory in acting.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 20, 2022, of The Himalayan Times
