Will Smith slapping Chris Rock remains one of the most startling moments in Oscars history. The incident not only damaged Smith’s reputation but also triggered significant ripple effects. Notably, Joe Rogan — one of the most influential voices in the world — expressed his disgust and frustration with both the Academy and Hollywood as a whole.

“I think who cares [about the Oscars], I really do. I think once Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, the Oscars, to me, were like, what? I’m done. I’m done. And then they all applauded him and gave him a standing ovation afterward when he won an Oscar. I’m done,” the UFC commentator said on JRE #2291 with guest Bert Kreischer. 

The fateful ‘slap heard around the world’, of course, came about after comedian Chris Rock, hosting the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith, who is Will Smith’s wife. This is par for the course. After all, it is part of the Oscars host’s job to joke about attendees.

However, Will Smith, who had already been facing flak online over his Jada’s ‘entanglement’ with one of her son’s friends, got so infuriated at Rock that he walked up to the stage and slapped the comedian. But instead of being escorted out of the ceremony, Smith was allowed to take his seat. Moreover, he even got a standing ovation from the attendees including Hollywood royalty for winning the Oscar in the Best Actor category for his role in the film ‘King Richard.’

And Joe Rogan, who always goes to bat for his fellow comedians, was rightfully furious. He still is irate, as you can tell from his aforementioned comments on the latest segment of his podcast. No one moved a muscle to help Chris Rock, and most egregiously, no action was taken. It is almost impossible to think that someone else could get away with doing that at the Oscars. But then again, if you are a massive Hollywood superstar, the rules aren’t the same for you.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences subsequently banned Smith from attending its events for ten years. But many, including apparently Rogan, think it was too little too late. However, according to Rogan, at least one good thing came out of this whole fiasco.

Why does Joe Rogan think the slap helped Chris Rock?

Joe Rogan feels that getting slapped and humiliated by Will Smith in front of the entire world brought out Chris Rock’s wild side. The comedian, of course, used to be pretty edgy comic because of his unfiltered style of comedy that touched upon many controversial topics such as race and gender relations, societal norms, discrimination, etc.

However, the ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ creator had moved away from his irreverent stand-up comedy roots in recent times as he concentrated more on a film and TV career. And the UFC commentator, speaking about Rock’s 2023 stand-up special ‘Selective Outrage’, where he talked about being slapped by Will Smith, brought out the comedian’s old edginess and irreverence.

“It was like was the best thing that ever happened to him because then he became wild again. It was outrageous. It was like the Rock of old,” Rogan told Hollywood star Adam Sandler on episode #2187 of the JRE podcast. What do you think about Joe Rogan’s disgust with the Oscars over their handling of slap-gate?