Comedian Michael Che defended former “Saturday Night Live” comic Chris Rock on Saturday’s show. According to Che, everyone has their struggles.
“Can we stop pretending everybody knew Jada (Pinkett Smith) had alopecia?” he asked during the show’s “Weekend Update” segment. “As much as we heard about Jada and Will’s personal lives, you can’t expect us to retain everything.”
A week ago, her husband Will Smith slapped Rock on stage during the 94th Academy Awards presentation after the Oscars host made a joke about the actress’s hair. She has talked about struggling with alopecia, which causes hair loss.
Che noted that Rock, who was an “SNL” cast member from 1990 to 1993, has publicly talked about about a disorder he has that makes it difficult for him to understand non-verbal signals.
“Sort of like how when he saw an angry Will Smith charging toward him,” Che said. “Instead of moving out of the way, he put both his hands behind his back, smiled and said, ‘Uh-oh.’”
That was when Smith, who has since apologized and resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, struck Rock on live TV. Smith was later awarded the best actor Oscar and gave a speech in which he said, “Love will make you do crazy things.”
Che acknowledged that comment and said, “You know what else makes you do crazy things? Crazy!”
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