I will only make two remarks about Will Smith’s behavior at the Academy Awards ceremony. First, the wisecrack I read somewhere else is all too true: the entire country is now The Jerry Springer Show. And that’s a best case scenario. Imagine if one or both of them had been armed. That’s happening in shopping malls in various places in the country.
My other remark is that I don’t think the producers of the show are receiving sufficient criticism. The design of the stage facilitated what happened. They should have made rules of conduct and dress clear and enforced them. Will Smith should have been ejected from the ceremony immediately. If that had happened there would no longer be a need for a discussion of consequences—he would already have experienced them.
IMO, the Pfizer-sponsored Oscar show has devolved into a preening elite display of entitled celebrities, whose indiscretions are discreetly ignored. Yes, had it been anyone but Will Smith, especially anyone of white coloration, they would have been ejected unceremoniously from the theater.
The best thing about this is the memes.
Other than that, I don’t care. People get slapped every day. The Jerry Springer analogy is apt with a lot of people pontificating about what should be done and who is the bad guy and who is the good guy.
My view is the old Gen-X phrase, “shit happens” and this is nothing of consequence.
The entire country? No, perhaps the entertainment industry and anyone who gives a damn about these reprobates. These people are sinking as low as politicians and media.
There are those who suspect Smith had WWE covert training and this was a publicity stunt for a dying format.
There are also those who suspect Smith is rather limp wristed which explains the slap.
Spring analogy is not bad. Look at how name calling is nt just tolerated but extolled and mimicked when done by people at the top of govt now or private sector. Oops, probably just government. Anyway, that kind of stuff used to be reserved for talk show/TV show hosts. Maybe WWWF is more apt? That would also account for the bragging and shamelessly lying to the audience (voters).
Steve