Chris Rock Briefly Addresses Will Smith Slap Before Comedy Show

For the first time, Chris Rock talked to the public following getting slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars. Well, it was the semi-public, considering you had to pay lots of $$$ to get inside the room.

Rock kicked off his Ego Death world tour on Wednesday night in Boston. He had two shows last night, and during the first show, he briefly addressed the Oscars incident.

When he came out on stage wearing all white, the crowd gave him a standing ovation for over a minute. He finally had to tell them to sit down so he could tell some jokes. After everyone settled, he opened things up by asking the crowd, “How was your weekend?” which is the perfect opening.

After a laugh from the crowd, he went on to say…

I don’t have a bunch of s*** about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point, I’ll talk about that s***.  And it will be serious and funny.

A few people in the crowd tried to start a “F**k Will Smith” chant, but Rock kinda shut it down by politely informing everyone he was there to tell some jokes.

In his second show of the night, Rock briefly addressed the incident again and confirmed that he hasn’t spoken to Will nor anyone else. It doesn’t sound like Will has reached out to him privately, and honestly, Rock might not even pick up the phone right now.

Another interesting piece of news broke on Wednesday night, and that was a statement from The Academy, claiming they actually asked Will Smith to leave following the slap, but he refused.

Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated. While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently.

Mr. Smith’s actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television. Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience in that moment. We also apologize to our nominees, guests and viewers for what transpired during what should have been a celebratory event.

They also made it clear that their current investigation will be serious and thoughtful.

Insiders say that behind-the-scenes, things were chaotic as hell following the slap. Producers didn’t know what to do and David Rubin, the president of the Academy, was absolutely livid, along with other high ranking members.

There was reportedly a lot of yelling backstage and “heated discussions” with Will’s reps.

Yikes. Not a good look.