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Will Smith's 'Hypocrisy' Called Out After Fans Unearth 1991 Clip Of Him Making Fun Of Bald Man

Will Smith's 'Hypocrisy' Called Out After Fans Unearth 1991 Clip Of Him Making Fun Of Bald Man!

Will Smith is the most talked-about man in Hollywood right now, in the days after he walked on stage during the Oscars and slapped Chris Rock across the face after the comedian made a joke about the actor’s wife.

But while defending Jada Pinkett Smith from Rock’s remark about her baldness, which has been caused by alopecia, the Independence Day actor inadvertently opened himself up to a very specific past moment: back in 1991, Smith went on national TV and made some bald jokes.

Related: Judd Apatow Says He Wasn’t Even Watching The Oscars When Tweeting About Will Smith?!

The Fresh Prince star’s early ’90s actions on The Arsenio Hall Show have quickly become a talking point on Twitter and elsewhere, as thousands of people have shared and commented upon the old, concerning clip. In the video circulating online now, the actor can be seen sitting down with show host for an interview. At one point during the discussion, Smith makes fun of Hall’s show bassist, John Williams, by calling out the man’s baldness while on stage.

In the old, recently-unearthed clip, the now-53-year-old actor points at Williams in the band area and says:

“Like, he has a rule, the bass player? He’s got a rule: He’s gotta wax his head every day. That’s a rule.”

And after the audience goes wild with laughter and jeers, Will reacts negatively to their response, adding:

“Ah these are jokes, come on.”

Here is the full clip (below):

Yikes!

Twitter users felt some type of way about the recently re-surfaced Arsenio Hall Show clip. Some people on the social media app defended Will’s old commentary for various reasons, while others pointed out the “hypocrisy” in the commentary in light of his now-infamous Oscars slap. You can see them all (below):

“One reason I love the internet, it never forgets.”

“See hypocrisy at his best”

“The internet is forever”

“30+ years ago, a man (it matters) and no way of knowing if he may or may not have alopecia. What Jada was dealing with was well known, especially to a ‘friend,’ which they consider each other. Context matters”

“there is a difference between making a joke about someone being bald and someone being ill”

“He was fine joking about someone else but could not handle it when the joke came about his family… That too the joke was not bad…”

“So you’re really comparing 20 something year old Will to a 50 plus years old Chris Rock? There are things that I thought were okay to say when I was young and naive, I Know better now, Chris should’ve known better.”

“This is actually worse than the G.I Jane joke imo”

“No way you’re trying to equate making fun of a bald man to making fun of a bald woman.”

Wow!

Twitter users have also pointed to other old clips of Smith, including this 1992 public service announcement about using words instead of violence to solve problems (below):

Obviously, pulling 30-year-old clips for Twitter convo fodder in 2022 will often be controversial, considering standards inevitably change over time. And there are some differences between the old Arsenio Hall situation and the Chris Rock joke made at Jada’s expense this past weekend, for sure.

But it’s definitely also noteworthy to see a younger version of Will go after baldness, and then defensively exclaim he’s just making a joke, only to turn around years later and resort to physical violence when another baldness joke is focused upon someone in his own family. Ya know?!?!

What do U think, Perezcious readers?

Sound OFF with your take on Will’s old (and new) opinions on making jokes about baldness down in the comments (below)…

[Image via WENN/Avalon/Twitter]

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Mar 29, 2022 09:40am PDT