Might “the slap” – when Will Smith walloped Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony – have been a publicity stunt? Amid the tidal wave of coverage the incident unleashed, that theory was floated in some quarters – at risk of letting Smith off the hook for his act of violence. I rather doubt it was a devious act of media manipulation, but more tickets for Rock’s touring show sold overnight after the Oscars than during the whole preceding month. Prices for his next gig spiked from $46 to more than $400.
This week, the tour, Rock’s first in five years, arrives in the UK – hotly anticipated, because “the slap” has propelled the 57-year-old right back into the heart of the cultural conversation (where he has not been for a while). The incident is still fresh in our minds. When Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage last week with a replica handgun at the Netflix Is a Joke festival in LA, the comedian Paddy McGuinness called it “a direct result” of Will Smith’s Oscars behaviour. When Richard Ayoade hosted the Baftas last week, he joked repeatedly – of course he did – about the prospect of a repeat incident.
