Whoopi Goldberg Makes Excuses for Will Smith Despite the Other Hosts of ‘The View’ Acknowledging the Unacceptable Violence at the Oscars

Today, the hosts of “The View” discussed the altercation that overshadowed the Oscars. As most everyone knows by now, Will Smith jumped on stage and assaulted Chris Rock last night. Rock had made a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair. It seemed at first that Smith laughed at the joke, but Jada didn’t appreciate the Joke by the look on her face. Quickly, Smith was on stage striking the comedian, he sat back down and screamed at Rock.

Whoopi Goldberg introduced the segment by showing the clip of the altercation from Sunday night. Goldberg then showed the clip of Smith’s acceptance speech for “Best Actor” where he acknowledged the incident apologized to The Academy and the other nominees but failed to apologize to Chris Rock. He justified his actions by saying, “but love will make you do crazy things.”

Comedian Joy Behar jumped in first, “I was thinking comedians are in danger everywhere”. She pointed out that comedians are supposed to be “edgy” and “say things that others are thinking”, but people are getting mad about the things comedians are saying. She gave a personal example of being at a college where she was not well received. The crowd started throwing popcorn at her and that is when she walked off the stage. She calls Will Smith striking Chris Rock “shocking”.

Ana Navarro then takes over, “Well hitting someone is a crime, it’s the crime of assault on national TV.” Navarro admits that she thought it was a joke at first, questioning how could this be allowed to happen. Navarro called it “Men behaving badly”. She called Rock’s joke a “bad taste joke” about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia and went on to reference another joke Rock made about Jada in 2016 when she boycotted the Oscars. “Nothing, nothing, nada condones violence in this form, nada,” she concludes.

Sunny Hostin tells the audience, “I was embarrassed for Will, I was horrified for Chris Rock”. She points out that Smith apologized last night but not to Chris Rock. Sunny believes that Rock took the high road and deserved an apology calling Smith “immature”, “childish” and “violent”. Behar points out that people rallied behind Will Smith and this surprised Sunny as it’s something basic we teach our children not to do. She pointed out that if a child were to do this a school they would be suspended. Sunny then touches on the fact that Will and Jada are public figures which open them up to jokes and commentary from others. Sunny ends her perspective with, “that was a show of toxic masculinity if he was offended and felt emasculated… you don’t act out in violence. That was not a show of love that was a show of violence.”

Goldberg then takes her shot, “I just think you know it was a lot of stuff probably built up.” Goldberg points to the last six years that there have been a lot of jokes about the pair’s marriage some “really low some okay”. “I think he overreacted… I get it not everybody acts the way we would like them to under pressure, some people just snap, he snapped”. Goldberg applauds Chris Rock for not escalating the situation. Goldberg then said, “sometimes you get to a point and you behave badly”. Goldberg was the only host to take up for Will Smith and try to excuse his actions at the Oscars. Goldberg then deflects from the conversation and calls the three female hosts of the Oscars “brilliant” and ends the segment.

WILL SMITH ASSAULTS CHRIS ROCK OVER JOKE: History was made at Sunday’s Academy Awards, but #TheView co-hosts weigh in on the altercation everyone is talking about and discuss if it overshadowed the moments that should have been celebrated. https://t.co/Ah9MDZwvCD #Oscars pic.twitter.com/kNMoxwHKeh

— The View (@TheView) March 28, 2022

Many may not be surprised by Goldberg’s stance, she likes to stir the pot now and then.

The Academy condemned Will Smith’s actions and has announced it will be conducting a formal review of the assault. Time will tell if Smith will keep his Oscar or if he will be found in violation of The Academy’s rules and possibly have the Oscar taken away.