Comedian Ricky Gervais cynically took to Twitter after the Academy decided to sanction Will Smith’s Oscar smack with a ten-year ban from all upcoming Oscar events.
Ricky Gervais compares the sanction to a prison sentence
“Hopefully he only gets to serve 6 years with good behavior,” Gervais posted, comparing the Academy’s Oscar ban to Will Smith to a prison sentence.
Hopefully, he’ll only do 6 years with good behavior. https://t.co/26Et5zsLWA
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) April 8, 2022
The comedian, who is notorious in Hollywood for his sharp jokes, had previously commented critically on Smith’s slap: It was not okay for him to punish someone with violence for a joke, “no matter how bad it is.” He also announced that Chris Rock’s comment on Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss was “the most harmless joke I would ever bring.” The fact that Gervais likes to pull out bigger guns was proven as the host of the Golden Globes, most recently in 2020, when he not only opposed Leonardo DiCaprio and his preference for younger people women, but against the entire audience.
Joking about hair is out of Ricky Gervais’ league
Asked what reaction Gervais himself would have expected if he had made the joke in Rock’s place, the latter replies “nothing”. Smith’s wife’s hair isn’t worth mentioning to him, “I would have told a joke about her boyfriend,” said the 60-year-old. He is alluding to Pinkett Smith’s affair with a younger man, which occurred during a break in her relationship with her husband.
“I’m fat and I’m bald”
The comedian goes on to dwell on commenters who think Rock had a “joke about her [Pinkett Smiths] disability”. According to this definition, Gervais would also consider himself disabled. Eventually his hair would be thinning too, not slimmer. “I can now park right in front of Tesco [auf dem Behindertenparkplatz]. I am fat. This is an illness. I’m fat and I’m bald,” the comedian said.
Will Smith, on the other hand, is keeping a low profile on the current situation: he reacted to the exclusion from the Oscars only with his approval. It was recently announced that he had fled to Dubai. After various celebrities had positioned themselves against him and even Chris Rock’s brother publicly rejected the apology, it became quiet about Smith. He even turned off the comment function under his apology post.