Chris Rock Hits Back

If the Academy Awards were pretaped, the public would never have seen Will Smith slap Chris Rock last year. Sure, the incident would be known about and reported on, but the bizarre, disquieting electricity of that moment came from it happening live, on a worldwide broadcast, during a meticulously choreographed event. Ever since then, the question has been how Rock would officially respond. Would he drop by a talk show and throw some barbs Smith’s way? Would he take the high road and ignore it? No, Rock is a stand-up comedian by trade, practiced in the realm of unplanned moments, so the most natural way for him to slap back was during a real-time broadcast of his own.