Will Smith mocks bald man in newly resurfaced clip: 'HE GOTTA WAX HIS HEAD'
'These are jokes,' Oscar winner said after mocking bass player on Arsenio Hall Show
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Will Smith is going viral again after a clip of him cracking a joke about a bald bass player during a 1991 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show resurfaced online this week.
The newly rediscovered segment started making the rounds after Smith stormed onstage during Sunday night’s Oscars and slapped Chris Rock across the face following the comedian’s wisecrack about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, in which he compared her shaved head look to G.I. Jane, a movie that starred Demi Moore.
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“Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it,” Rock said.
In his appearance more than 30 years ago, Smith poked fun at John B. Williams’ bald head. “The bass player? He got a rule. He gotta wax his head every morning. That’s a rule! He follows the rules, man. He follows the rules,” Smith says in the clip that was posted to Twitter along with the caption: “One reason I love the Internet, it never forgets.”
After Smith took a swipe, the camera flashed on Williams, who seems to laugh it off, but some audience members didn’t seem to think it was funny. “These are jokes,” Smith exclaimed. “Come on!”
Rolling Stone caught up with Williams, now 81, who said he didn’t take the remark seriously.
“He was a comedian. He was the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He was a rapper. I took it as a joke. I laughed it off,” he said. Williams also told the magazine that the jokes differed because of their intent.
“Chris Rock is a comedian. I like Chris Rock. When Chris first made the comment, Will was laughing. It wasn’t until it became obvious Jada didn’t think it was funny that Will went to her defence. Love makes you do all kinds of things,” Williams said. “That’s his wife, who he loves. He just reacted from outrage. I have sometimes reacted from outrage.”
Smith’s attack on Rock also isn’t the first time he has slapped someone in public.
Another video unearthed from a decade ago shows the Oscar winner backhanding Vitalii Sediuk, who was pretending to be a reporter, at the Russian premiere of Men In Black III after the notorious prankster tried to kiss him on the red carpet.
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“What the hell is your problem, man?” Smith says before giving him a backhand. Later on, Smith told another reporter, “He tried to kiss me on the mouth … he’s lucky I didn’t sucker punch him.”
Sediuk, who went on to pull pranks on the likes of Adele, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bradley Cooper and others, told the U.K. Sun that Smith never apologized for smacking him.
“He is A-list and being A-list in Hollywood means that you can get away with a lot of stuff,” Sediuk said. “A-listers can get away with everything.”
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