Howard Stern is not the first prominent media figure to condemn Will Smith for his physical assault on comedian Chris Rock during Sunday night’s Oscars. But he might be the only one to draw a direct parallel between the superstar actor and former President Donald Trump.
“The first thing I said to myself was, ‘What the fuck is going on, is this a bit?’” the host said on his SiriusXM show Monday morning. “Because where is security? This is a live television event! Not one person came out, because he’s Will Smith.
“This is how Trump gets away with shit,” he continued. “Will Smith and Trump are the same guy. He decided he’s going to take matters into his own hands, at a time when the world is at war. Bad timing, man. I mean, just calm your fucking ass down.”
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Stern went on to praise Rock for thinking (and staying) on his feet, even though he was clearly “flustered” after what had happened. But he quickly returned to Smith, who he said “clearly has got emotional problems” as evidenced by his surreal acceptance speech later in the night. “This is a sign of great mental illness when you can’t control your impulse,” he added.
The host then joked that if Best Actress winner Jessica Chastain’s husband had stormed the stage and punched someone, he would have been “escorted out” immediately. “You don’t think they would have called the police and said, ‘We’ve got a madman on the loose?’” he asked.
Later, comedian Nikki Glaser called in to express her shock and concern over the incident, taking Stern’s comments a step further by drawing an analogy with Hollywood’s most notorious sexual predator.
“People say, ‘How did Weinstein get away with that for so long? How did that happen?’ And it’s like, we just witnessed it!” she said. “Everyone saw an assault take place. Everyone in the room with their own eyes. And then if you would have tuned in 20 minutes later, you would have never known that happened.”
