Joe Rogan Warns Of 'Terrible Precedent' Set By Will Smith Oscars Slap

American podcaster Joe Rogan has spoken out about Will Smith's altercation with Chris Rock at the Oscars.

At the 94th Academy Awards, Smith went home with a lot more than he bargained for then just his Best Actors award, after he took to the stage just moments earlier to slap Chris Rock in the face.

Smith verbally abused and struck the presenter after he made a 'GI Jane 2' joke aimed at Jada Pinkett Smith over her lack of hair - a result of her alopecia.

Men in Black star Smith later publicly apologised to Rock.

However, UFC commentator Rogan has since given his take on the events, reflecting that Smith's actions set a 'terrible precedent'.

The Joe Rogan Experience

On Tuesday, 29 March's episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the 54-year-old reflected on the most talked about moment of the Oscars.

He said: "It sets a terrible precedent in so many different ways.

"It sets a terrible precedent for comedy clubs. Like, are people going to decide to go on stage and smack a comedian now?"

Alamy

Rogan also questioned why Smith was then allowed to take to the stage after the incident to accept his award.

He said: "It's a rare instance that someone so enormously famous and successful like Will Smith that they literally still allowed him to not just win the Academy Award, but also go up and accept it and give a speech after he assaulted a small comedian on stage."

The episode's guest, MMA fighter Josh Barnett, stated that the Academy 'should have ejected' Smith from the awards.

"100%, 100%. You can’t just go smack a man in the face in front of the world and go about business as usual," Rogan responded.

Alamy

Oscars organisers were quick to condemn Smith and released a statement explaining that it had 'officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law'.

Speculation has been growing as to whether or not Smith will be allowed to keep his award following the incident.

However, Academy Governor Whoopi Goldberg reflected that while Smith 'overreacted' and that she's 'sure [...] there will be consequences,' that she doesn't think Smith will be stripped of his Oscar.

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Topics: Joe Rogan, Will Smith, Oscars, Jada Pinkett Smith

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.