Netizens React After Chris Rock Makes Fun Of Infamous Will Smith Smacking Incident At Oscars: 'Legend'

Chris Rock received praise for his performance on "Selective Outrage," Netflix's first live-streamed global event.

Rock aimed at Smith by speaking at length, for the first time, about the infamous slapping incident at the 2022 Academy Awards. The comedian was onstage to present the award for the best documentary feature when he noticed Jada Pinkett Smith and joked about her bald head. The "Men in Black" star wasn't thrilled and quickly approached Rock and smacked him onstage.

Rock hadn't addressed the issue for nearly a year publicly. However, he called the award-winning actor "Suge Smith" in his previous shows. But for the first time on his stand-up show "Selective Outrage," streamed live on Netflix from Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore on Saturday night, Rock spoke about the incident.

Many were surprised, but they praised Rock for the way he handled the whole issue. He never did an interview about the issue and decided to only speak about it when he wanted to.

"Chris Rock has handled this situation in the best way ever. He stayed quiet and got on with his tour and brought it up when HE wanted to. He didn't ask for any of that media circus after the Oscars and didn't respond to Will Smith s—tty apology. He handled it when he wanted to and didn't want any sympathy or to be used by the media," one commented on a clip of Rock's show shared by "Good Morning America" on YouTube, before adding, "He's an absolute legend."

"If 'turning a negative into a positive' was a person," another wrote with three clapping hands emojis.

"Frickin' brilliant!! Hilarious and extremely satisfying to hear him take down Smith in the best way," a third person added.

"Those last ten minutes were worth watching the special alone. He teased it slightly through his routine [and] then dropped the gloves at the end (if he even had them on to begin with). Outside of that, it was a nice, fun if occasionally wonky, 70 minutes of comedy," a different user opined.

Several netizens echoed the same sentiment on Twitter. Many also gave Rock a thumbs-up for not playing the victim following the incident.

"God bless you. You're a real man. You actually show patience and courage. I salute you," one wrote.

"Now now way (sic) did Chris Rock deserve to be hit for what he said by Will Smith, after watching his Netflix special — I mean this as a compliment he earned that slap now," another jokingly added.

During the show, Rock addressed the infamous slapping incident and explained why he did not do an interview following it.

"I'm still kind of processing what happened. So at some point, I'll talk about that s--t. And it will be serious and funny," he said, per The Guardian.

"I am not a victim. You will never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying. Never going to happen ... I took that hit like [boxer Manny] Pacquiao. I took it like motherf--king Pacquiao. Did it hurt? Yeah, motherf--ker, it hurt."