During his comedy show in Boston on Thursday night, March 31, Chris Rock stopped his supporters from criticizing Will Smith.
‘F**k Will Smith!’ yelled a fan, most likely in favor of Rock after Smith slapped him onstage at the Academy Awards last Sunday.
According to People, the comedian responded, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Chris refused to comment on the smack during the Oscars program.
Rock was greeted by ‘Will Smith’ chants from the audience the night before, during his first public appearance since the Oscars slap, but he did not silence the hecklers.
During the act, the comedian addressed the slap briefly, stating that he still needs time to ‘digest’ the assault.
‘I haven’t talked to anyone, despite what you heard,’ he added, referring to allegations that Rock and Smith had reconciled.
On Wednesday, the 57-year-old comic grabbed the stage at the Wilbur Theatre and inquired, “How was your weekend?”
The crowd erupted in laughter when Rock assured those in attendance that the event would go on as planned despite Will Smith’s on-screen strike.
‘I don’t have a bunch of s*** to say about what occurred, so if you came to hear that, I had like a complete show I wrote before… this weekend…’ he joked. ‘And I’m still trying to figure out what happened.’
‘So I’ll talk about that s*** at some point… and it’ll be serious.’ ‘It’ll be humorous,’ he remarked, before a member of the audience said, ‘F*** Will!’
Rock later revealed that he hasn’t spoken to ‘anyone’ since the event, alluding to rumours that he and Smith have reconciled.
However, several of the 3,000 attendees, who spent up to $1,000 per ticket, were dissatisfied when the stand-up comic dodged the topic that was on everyone’s mind.
‘We want our money back,’ one customer told Fox News. ‘I didn’t pay $400 to see nothing.’
Will Smith stormed the Oscars stage on Sunday, yelling “Rock!” after the comedian made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who was diagnosed with alopecia.
‘I adore you, Jada.”
G.I. Jane 2 is a sequel to G.I. Jane “‘I can’t wait to see it,’ Rock said during his presentation of the award for best documentary to Pinkett Smith, whose close-shaven head looked similar to Demi Moore’s in the 1997 film.
It’s unclear whether Rock was aware that Pinkett Smith had a hair-loss problem, but Smith responded with a smack and an angry admonition to ‘keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth!’
Smith was revealed as the winner of the best actor award shortly after and received a standing ovation from several of his peers when he went up to accept his statuette.
Smith apologized to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members vote for the Oscars and who host the program, but he did not apologize to Rock in his acceptance speech.