Actor-comedian Ricky Gervais said that, unlike actor-comedian Chris Rock, who joked about actor Will Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith's medical condition and ended up getting slapped for the same, he would have joked about her affair.
Actor-comedian Ricky Gervais has spoken about the infamous joke which got actor-comedian Chris Rock slapped by actor Will Smith at the Oscars. Rock joked about Will Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s medical condition, Alopecia, which leads to loss of hair. Reacting to the same, Will Smith, who seemed to be laughing at first, walked upto the stage and slapped Rock, taking the viewers as well as the audience by surprise.
Gervais said that if he had been in Rock’s place, her medical condition would have not been something that he would have joked about. Calling it “the tamest joke” he would’ve ever told, he said that nothing would have happened to him if he had happened to crack it. In recent video chat with his fans, on social media, he said, “Nothing would happen to me because I wouldn’t have told a joke about his wife’s hair. I’d have told a joke about her boyfriend.” For the unversed, Pinkett Smith has said she was “in a relationship” with a younger man when she and Smith were on a break from their relationship in 2020.
Talking about how someone said that the joke was making fun of Jada Pinkett Smith’s disability, Gervais said, “Well I’m going a bit thin, I’m disabled,” he said while pointing to his hair in the video chat. “I can park right up next to Tesco’s now [in disabled parking]. I’m fat. That’s a disease. I’m fat and balding.”
As far as hosting goes, Gervais has been one of the most popular hosts of these award shows. He has hosted the Golden Globes five times.