Chris Rock Gets 'Misty' At First Set After Oscars Incident, Addresses Those Who Came To Hear About The Slap

Chris Rock performs on his Netflix special Tamborine.
(Image credit: Netflix)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was probably really hoping that several days later people would still be talking about the Oscars, but the reasons the Academy Awards are still a topic of conversation are likely not what anybody was hoping for. Will Smith slapping Chris Rock is still a major topic of conversation, but it won’t be getting discussed much on Rock’s current stand-up tour, at least not for a little while. 

Tickets to Chris Rock’s stand-up tour have reportedly been selling extremely well following the Oscar night event, compared to how they had been selling beforehand. When Rock took the stage for a pair of sold out shows in Boston on Wednesday night, his first since the Oscars, he was greeted with a pair of standing ovations to start the shows according to CNN. He told the audience he was getting “misty” over the warm reception, but he also told the crowd that if they came to hear jokes about the slap, they would be disappointed, Rock explained…

I don't have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I had like a whole show I wrote before this weekend. And I'm still kind of processing what happened, so at some point I'll talk about that shit. And it'll be serious and it'll be funny, but right now I'm going to tell some jokes.

While some certainly may have come to the show hoping to hear the first jokes about the Oscars, most were probably more than happy to just hear a set from Chris Rock. The buying of tickets was possibly, like the standing ovations, an act of support for the comedian.

At some point we can be sure that Chris Rock will talk about the Oscars and we can be pretty sure the jokes will hit hard, but Rock also says it will be serious. While distance will allow for the event to have some levity, part of the reason it has captured so many people is that it’s not that funny at all. Rock decided against pressing charges following the event which could have been classified as assault. That doesn’t necessarily mean this is over for him.

People have very strong feelings about who was in the wrong, or more likely, who was more in the wrong, as there is plenty of blame to go around. Everybody from Oscar co-host Wanda Sykes to Jim Carrey have made public comments about what they think of what happened. One voice that has remained largely silent, is Jada Pinkett-Smith. While Will Smith has apologized to Rock, The Academy is reportedly taking the whole thing quite seriously, even considering expelling Will Smith, who just won the Academy Award for Best Actor, from its ranks.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.