The View Condemns Will Smith’s Oscar Smack: He Was ‘Immature,’ ‘Childish’ and ‘Violent’

The cohosts of The View kicked off their show on Monday with a discussion of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars the night before.

“Shock waves after Oscar winner Will Smith goes way off script and assaults Chris Rock in one of the most stunning moments in awards show history,” said the show’s voice-over during the introduction. Smith went on stage and slapped Rock after the comedian made a joke about his wife’s hair loss.

“Should he have been escorted off the show for this? Did he deserve a standing ovation after his act of violence? And, will it overshadow all the other historic moments that should be celebrated from last night?” the voice-over added, hyping the drama around the conversation.

“So what was going on in your heads when you saw it?” asked Whoopi Goldberg after showing a clip of the slap and Smith’s acceptance speech for Best Actor.

“I was thinking, comedians are in danger everywhere,” said Joy Behar.

“That, you know, they want us to be edgy. They want us to go out there and say things other people are just thinking. They want us to take a risk, and then they get mad, and they get mad, but, you know, that’s what’s happening lately. People get mad,” Behar added, she continued by sharing her personal experience as a comedian:

One time I was doing a college gig, and they didn’t like me for some reason. I don’t know. They started throwing popcorn at me. So I did what I always do. I walked off, and that would be a more appropriate — to me, a more appropriate response if you’re upset about something to walk off. As you and I did on Bill O’Reilly that time, but to actually hit somebody was shocking frankly. It was shocking.

“Hitting somebody is a crime, right? It is a crime of assault on national TV,” added Ana Navarro.

“At first I thought it was a joke. I think a lot of us thought this is going to be a comedy bit because this cannot possibly be happening on the live telecast of the Oscars that these two men, you know, at the top of their game with Will Smith about to get an Oscar for the first time in his life, that this is happening,” continued Navarro.

“It just can’t be happening. It was men behaving badly. I think — look, and I don’t think it’s equivalent because Chris Rock is a comedian. It was a joke. It was a lame joke. It was a joke in very poor taste. So in context, Jada Smith has alopecia, and that’s why she shaved her head. She’s been very public about it. She’s been very vulnerable about it. That’s what the joke was about, and also in context, in 2016, Chris Rock had also in a monologue in the Oscars taken a shot at Jada. That being said, nothing, nothing, nada, cero, condones violence in this form,” Navarro concluded. “Nada.”

“Yeah. I mean, I was embarrassed for will. I was horrified for Chris Rock. I mean, Will apologized to the Academy and he apologized to his colleagues and the other nominees, but he didn’t apologize to Chris Rock,” said Sunny Hostin.

“And I thought Chris was the one that deserved an apology for taking the high road. He was slapped in front of millions of people, internationally, and he took the high road in his response. I think that Will was immature. I think he was childish, and I think he was violent,” added Hostin.

“People are rallying around Will rather than…” Interjected Behar.

“Which is surprising to me because I think that’s something we tell our children not to do, right?” Hostin added. “Our children would be suspended from school for doing something like that. Use your words. He’s a Grammy award-winning rapper. Shouldn’t he have been able to say something?”

“Well, he did,” said Behar.

“Well, he was using expletives though. I think the other part of this is, you know, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have lived publicly their whole lives and when you live publicly, you do open up yourself to jokes, you open up yourself to commentary,” continued Hostin.

“Jada did shave her head on Instagram. Said she was embracing her new look. They’ve talked openly about their open relationship, their open marriage. They’ve talked openly about Jada’s affair with one of their children’s friends on “The Red Table”, you know, “La Mesa Roja” and I think that type of thing when you live publicly, you don’t have the right to all of the sudden execute violence, and I have to say that was a show of toxic masculinity,” Hostin said.

“If he was offended and felt emasculated by Regina Hall’s joke or by Chris Rock’s joke, you don’t act out in violence. That is not a show of love. That’s a show of violence,” concluded Hostin.

“Whoopi, you have been an Oscar host and you’re a comedian. What’s your perspective on this?” Asked Behar.

“I just think, you know, it’s a lot of stuff probably built up because 2016, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20, ’21. Brought a lot of jokes. Some of them really low, some of them okay. I think he overreacted,” replied Whoopi.

“I’m sorry. I’m not following you,” Behar followed up, asking Whoopi to clarify.

“Jokes about their marriage,” said Whoopi. “Jokes about them, and in 2016, Chris was also the host of the Oscars that year, and it was funny. It was — I would have been a little annoyed, you know, but I think he had — he had one of those moments where it was just, like, GD it, you know?” continued Goldberg.

“Just, just stop. Just stop, and you got all the pressure of hoping that you win and trying to keep your face, you know, I — I get it,” Goldberg continued, empathizing with Smith.

“Not everybody acts the way we would like them to under pressure. Some people just snap. He snapped. What I do want to say, I think it’s remarkable and wonderful that Chris Rock did not take it to that other place it could have gone,” she added, praising Rock for keeping his cool and not escalating the incident into a fight.

“So, you know, I don’t know if they spoke or if he apologized or not. All I know is sometimes you get to a point, and you act — you behave badly. I myself have behaved badly on occasion, but you know what I do want to point out? That show, those three women as hosts, brilliant to me,” Whoopi concluded, praising the show’s producer and last night’s Oscar ceremony in general.

Watch the full clip above, via ABC