I'm always grateful for new vocabulary, but I can't much celebrate one high-profile celebrity losing his composure over a mean joke.
The Oscars have slowly turned from a circle jerk of self-important Hollywood celebrities to a glorified roast; maybe the price of such success is occasionally subjecting yourself to some public humiliation, but not everyone got the message that the aim of the event had changed to some kind of emotional purge where rich people show each other they are cool and in on the joke. But even rich celebrities can have a rough go, and the Smith family's troubles were highly publicized since Jada's infidelity was revealed on some daytime garbage talk show. Despite his success, Will's inability to control the violent urge to shut someone up will surely polarize opinions. Did he defend his wife's honor or his own ego? Plenty of folks will say Rock went too far and Smith was justified. Hollywood conjures excuses for the protagonist to participate in some righteous violence, why should we be able to discern reality from fiction?
The joke Rock delivered--which was probably approved by a committee who thought it was still 1997--was in poor taste, but by roast standards it was relatively tame and barely surface-level observational humor. He wasn't threatening anyone, and it didn't warrant violence. The insult comic getting their comeuppance is such an old trope, I thought it was staged at first. John Wayne had to be restrained by several security guards to keep him from assaulting Sacheen Littlefeather in 1973 after she called out the dehumanization of her people in western films... but Will Smith just walked right up on stage and slapped the host.
I guess when someone can't laugh at something, it's cause you hit a nerve. It says more about themselves than the comedian. And boy, whether it was planned or not, what a distraction that turned out to be amidst the threats to democracy and civilization around the world.
At any rate, I hate that I know all this and we live in a stupid timeline.
Speaking of glorified violence, perhaps you might've heard くらえ！ at some point in Dragonball or something when one character is about to smoke someone and they tell them to "eat this!" I'm more impressed by the use of 往復 to mean both cheeks though; now it's my turn to learn something!
