Gill on Hollywood Hypocrisy: I’d Be in Jail if I Punched a Black Comedian

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It was the slap heard around the world.

From celebrities in Beverly Hills to politicians in the Beltway, everyone has a take on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars Sunday night.

Watch the UNCENSORED video of smackdown here. 

Republican commentator Steve Gill, the host of the Gill Report, said on “Wake Up Memphis” Monday the whole debacle between the two actors exposed the ugly hypocrisy of Hollywood.

“If I’d done that to a black comic on stage, I’d be in jail already,” Gill said.

Here’s a rush transcript of that conversation: 

Tim Van Horn: It’s time to talk about the top political stories in the state of Tennessee with our buddy Steve Gill, Steve, of course. I think this segment is probably not immune to talking about really the topic du jour. And I have to say you had an excellent breakdown of the Will Smith slapping of Chris Rock on the Oscar stage last night. How are you doing?

Steve Gill: I’m good, but no jokes this morning. I’m going to have to slap you upside the head.

Van Horn: You know, you may have to slap me twice. I usually don’t learn the first time, but yeah, it was. Yeah, that was an interesting night. No doubt about that with, you know, and I’m still trying to figure out if it’s real or not because I didn’t see fight or flight come out of Chris Rock.

Gill: Yeah, it looked like again when it’s slow motion and it was open-handed instead of a punch. It was kind of weird because when the joke was first made about Jada Pinkett’s shaved head Chris, Chris Rock makes the joke. Will Smith kind of chuckles. Clearly, his wife is upset, and then he comes on stage and slaps him with this open hand fist. The point I’ve made is, I don’t know. Everybody’s now saying, Oh, well, you know, she has alopecia, she has some hair condition. That’s why her head was shaved. But you see women with shaved heads these days. I tend to believe that Chris Rock had no idea she had some medical condition. It’s already been said that it wasn’t part of the script. I think like most comics, he looks out. He sees the shaved head. He rips off the script, not having any idea that she’s got a shaved head because of some medical condition, but instead assuming I was just a fashion statement, which is she’s a public figure too. It’s not like she’s a stay-at-home mom. She’s a public figure, and he riffs on her like, that’s what the comics do at this. And then now everybody’s trying to evoke the sympathy card for her saying, well, she has a medical condition. I think it’s more likely that she’s a narcissist and believes everybody closely tracked her medical conditions and Chris Rock knew. I think it’s less likely that Chris Rock follows her medical condition.

Van Horn: So you say you have is your gut feeling that that was real and not a rehash of the Jerry Lawler Andy Kaufman slap from David Letterman?

Gill: Yeah, because I think if it had been faked, you know, you would have had Chris Rock respond differently. And then the fact that you had Will Smith screaming from the audience, you know, get your wife’s mouth or get your my wife’s name out of your f-bomb mouth a couple of times. He was clearly enraged. It was, yeah, the sympathy he was getting backstage for folks. You know, again, if I’d done that to a black comic on stage, I’d be in jail already.

Van Horn: Yeah. Will Smith invokes some privilege as a celebrity, being able to walk up there. Where is the security? Where were the police? I’ll tell you.

Listen to the full interview with Steve Gill below: 


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