Chris Rock’s Oscars Alopecia Jibe – When Do Jokes About Body Difference Stop Being Funny?

Chris Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia has quite understandably been somewhat overshadowed by her husband Will Smith’s explosive reaction live on stage at the 94th Academy Awards on Sunday.

Presenting on stage during the last hour of the show, referring to actress Demi Moore’s buzz cut in the 1997 movie G.I. Jane, Rock quipped, “I love you,” further adding “‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it.”

What was to happen next shocked the audience and TV viewers alike as Smith headed towards Rock and roundly slapped him across the face before returning to his seat blasting, “keep my wife’s name out your f**king mouth.”

Smith, who went on to win Best Actor for his portrayal of Richard Williams in King Richard, a sports biopic about the father and coach of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, later apologized to Rock and the Academy in an Instagram post on Sunday night.

Clearly, Smith’s violent reaction was inexcusable but what about Rock? Was his serve that drew Smith’s ferocious forehand return within the boundaries of taste or did it cross the line?

Nothing like a disability?

Pinkett Smith has talked openly about her alopecia, an auto-immune condition in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body, since 2018 describing the condition as “terrifying” and electing to cope with it by shaving her head.

Deconstructing Rock’s joke into some kind of parallel, had he suggested that an actor who had lost a hand in the last few years might like to reprise a role in a new movie about Captain Hook, would it have been OK?

How about an actor in a wheelchair because of a car accident some years ago? Would a joke that that they should now be ideally positioned to authentically portray Professor Charles Xavier in a new X-Men movie have had the audience rolling around in the aisles?

If, in these scenarios, Rock would have elected not to go there, then a simple explanation of why he did so this time must be because he doesn’t consider alopecia to be akin to any serious disfigurement or disability.

Perhaps it is not in the classic sense but it is a medical condition the effects of which can have devastating mental repercussions for those afflicted.

In an article published in the London Evening Standard yesterday, British actor and singer Joelle who was diagnosed with alopecia and made her on-screen debut in the Oscar-nominated Dune, gave her views on the episode, stating that it’s never OK to joke about someone’s appearance.

She alluded to the case of 12-year-old Rio Allred from Indiana who recently committed suicide after being bullied about her alopecia at school.

Joelle also described emotively, “What it is like to be laughed at by children and by adults, for something that you didn’t even do, that wasn’t your choice. To be picked on, to be alienated, to be seen as a symbol of tragedy, as an object of mockery.”

Her article conveyed a harrowing sense of so many aspects of the condition most people are unlikely to have considered when she wrote about, “What it is like to live in fear of your loved ones becoming someone they do not visually recognize. What it is like to hear the ones you love crying slumped down on the ground on the other side of a locked door.”

The court of public opinion

In Rock’s defense, he might simply say he was just doing his job.

As a comedian and Academy Awards performer, it is part of the fanfare to poke fun at the gathered celebrities and the most compelling way of doing this is to sail that little bit close to the wind.

Others will point to the fact that Rock has previously produced and starred in the 2009 documentary Good Hair where he explores the pivotal importance of hair in Black culture and how it affects Black women in particular.

Two years ago, he himself opened up to the Hollywood Reporter about being diagnosed with Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NVLD).

Finally, this year’s ceremony saw CODA, a film dealing with disability, win Best Picture along with co-star Troy Kotsur receiving the award for Best Supporting Actor – the first deaf actor to attain such an accolade.

Perhaps, Rock really should have known better.

Certainly, Smith should have known better. A witty riposte in the moment or a touching affirmation of his wife during his acceptance speech would have been the smarter move on every level.

Instead, the red mist descended and he brought unwanted attention to himself.

Smith overstepped the mark but there is no way of quite answering with any absolute certainty whether Rock did for sure. Comedy is, by its very nature, is subjective and what is grossly offensive to one person can be seen as just an innocent giggle to another.

This episode has already been adjudicated by the court of public opinion and the entertainment industry and fans will nail their colors to the mast before quickly forgetting about it and moving on.

Unfortunately, there is no limelight, no press scrutiny and no court of public opinion open to the thousands of ordinary people with disabilities and other physical differences who are on the receiving end of micro-aggressions, disparaging remarks and made to be the butt of jokes every day.

They largely suffer in silence but most likely, from time to time at least, some might pause to reflect on what elements exist in society that draw people into thinking that such behavior represents little more than harmless fun.