O.J. Simpson has spoken out on Will Smith‘s now-famous Oscars 2022 “Hitch” slap, noting that while the actor was “wrong,” he appreciated “the intent.”
The famed “Juice” tweeted his opinions Tuesday, resulting in a now-viral video that had almost 900,000 views as of Wednesday morning.
Simpson, 74, was alluding to the incident at the Oscars on Sunday, when the 53-year-old best actor winner for “King Richard” whacked Rock, 57, for making a contentious bald joke about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, who has been vocal about her continuing battle with alopecia.
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“Hey look, it was unfortunate, I think Will was wrong,” said the former Buffalo Bills running back.
Despite this, Simpson stated that he “felt the sentiment,” adding: “In my life, I’ve been through a lot of crap and I was raising two young kids, and every comedian in the country had an O.J. routine, and don’t think I wanna be slapped a couple of those guys.”
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The “Naked Gun” star was most likely referring to the jokes that circulated on “Saturday Night Live,” late-night talk programmes, and everywhere else in the ’90s during his trial for the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman — charges for which he was finally acquitted.
Simpson, on the other hand, feels that “you gotta accept that it’s humor.”
“I didn’t even think that [Chris Rock’s Joke] was all that egregious,” he admitted. “I thought it was a semi-unfunny joke.”
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Furthermore, the former advertising representative said that if he had executed the same trick as Smith following his 2007 armed robbery arrest in Las Vegas, he would have been imprisoned for life without the chance of parole.
Simpson is not the only A-lister to criticise Smith’s actions toward Chris. Jim Carrey, Zoe Kravitz, and Amy Schumer among others have done so.
