CNN Scores Random Chris Rock Audience Member to Dish on First Post-Slap Show
CNN scored a hot interview on the hottest topic du jour: an exclusive with Will Smith slap victim Chris Rock …’s audience member.
We are now on Day Five of the slap news cycle, and what a five days it has been. Since the slap heard ’round the world during Sunday night’s Oscar Awards show, it seems like everyone on the entire planet has chimed in about the moment, in literally every conceivable way — and in many ways that aren’t so conceivable. The slap flap even found its way into the White House briefing room.
But on Thursday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, anchor Brianna Keilar broke new ground by interviewing Alex Avram, a young man who was present when Rock commented about the slap at a comedy show.
Keilar began by reading some of what Rock said, which was captured on audio from the show in Boston.
“I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point I’ll talk about that sh**. And it will be serious and funny. But right now I’m going to tell some jokes,” Keilar quoted Rock as saying.
But as Michael Scott can tell you, you haven’t heard Chris Rock until you’ve heard it filtered secondhand through a white dude, and so it fell to Mr. Avram to describe Mr. Rock’s thoughts and mood during the show in question.
“Can you just tell us a little bit about what he said, how that struck you, what he said about what happened at the Oscars?” Keilar asked the young man.
Avram referenced the statement Keilar read, and added “it really seemed that he didn’t want to touch on it too much. But yeah, it seems like he’s just trying to avoid any controversies or anything like that. I don’t think he wants it to be a super big deal is just what I got from what he said.”
He went on to add that Rock “seemed pretty in shock about” the incident, and that “he definitely didn’t seem like he was ready to talk about it.”
“I understand he got a lot of support from the audience. Obviously, they were there to see him, but a lot of support. Probably an outsized amount of support because of what happened at the Oscars. What was the mood there?” Keilar asked.
“There was a standing ovation that lasted for at least over a minute. He actually addressed that. He was like, ‘OK, can I?’ He’s like, ‘Thank you, thank you. But can I get to, like, my jokes?’ And the audience definitely was very supportive,” Avram said, and added that “people were yelling things about Will Smith and stuff like that. But he kinda ignored it.”
Variety reported that someone in the audience yelled “Fuck Will Smith!” and Rock ignored it.
CNN correspondent Sara Sidner was an early adopter of embarrassment at the blanket coverage of this flap in the midst of a brutal war. Perhaps the Random Fan Phase portends an imminent end to it.
Watch above via CNN.
