Steve Harvey has now weighed in on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony in 2022.
The Judge Steve Harvey and Family Feud host believes Will Smith "overreacted" to Chris Rock's G.I. Jane 2 joke directed at his wife. Pinkett Smith recently welcomed a "season for healing" in her recent Instagram post. Additionally, Harvey questioned the circumstances surrounding the slap, arguing that it was a "Hollywood move" since Smith knew Rock wouldn't be able to react in the moment.
“I understand defending the honor of your wife, I’m that dude. … He didn’t do that. That joke was not worthy of the reaction,” Harvey said during a recent discussion with his Steve Harvey Morning Show panel. “If he was gonna have a reaction, I think that Will should have done the man thing, which is step to him afterwards in that press room. And if he wanted to slap Chris then, he could have slapped Chris in the press room and seen how it went.”
As Harvey moved on to the Hollywood move, he said that an incident like this "in real life" would have played out differently.
“See, he laughed at the joke until he saw Jada’s reaction,” Harvey said. “But now, let me tell you something. That’s a Hollywood move now to go up there on national TV, slap another Black man, turn around … and walk off because you know he can’t do nothing.”
Harvey believes Smith "overreacted" and will probably face "some type of banning" from the Oscars due to the slap, which has been covered nonstop since it happened on Sunday. Harvey also mentioned Smith's advice Denzel Washington gave him, as well as the most recent Grammys controversy involving the artist formerly known as Kanye West.
“There’s gonna be some type of banning from the Oscars of Will Smith,” Harvey said. “Because look, they took Kanye off the Grammys for saying a racial slur about Trevor Noah. They took him off the Grammys. The Oscars is all Hollywood is about. It’s their biggest moment. And for you to do that on their biggest moment, on their biggest night? Denzel told him right, ‘In your biggest moment is when the devil comes for you.’ You should have handled that totally different, man.”
Watch Harvey and his Morning Show panel below. Harvey describes Smith's Best Actor acceptance speech as "raggedy" at one point.
It's worth noting that Harvey's remarks came before Smith released a public statement regarding the slap. Smith said in his recent statement that he had "reacted emotionally" to Rock's joke about Jada.