The best takedown ever? Chris Rock’s comic slap back to Will Smith breaks internet

Chris Rock’s long-awaited public response to being slapped by actor Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars has garnered high praise, with some calling it the “greatest brutal takedown” ever.

During his new Netflix standup special that premiered live on Saturday night, Rock responded verbally to Smith a year after the incident that saw Smith kicked out of the Academy.

In a nearly two-minute segment, Rock fired back at Smith’s decision to slap him onstage at the awards ceremony after his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith was the butt of the joke about his shaved head.

‘Everyone called him a b**ch, and who is he hitting? Me,’ Rock joked to a crowd that included a friend of Meghan Markle’s who he was seen laughing backstage, according to Page six.

The comedian also took aim at the former ‘Suits’ actress during his special, saying she was ‘acting dumb’ for not realizing that the royal family are the ‘OGs of racism’.

During his new Netflix standup special that premiered live on Saturday night, Rock hit back at Smith a year after the incident that saw Smith kicked out of the Academy.

Among those seen in the audience laughing during the special was Janina Gavankar, who was seen laughing at Rock’s jokes about Will Smith and her own friend, Meghan Markle.

Rock’s tirade has since been hailed on social media as “the best/perfect way” to get back at Smith for their career-changing moment.

The comedian made audience members and live viewers wait until the final ten minutes of ‘Chris Rock: Selective Outrage’ before addressing the slap.

“You all know what happened to me, when Suge Smith hit me,” the comedian joked. Rock said: ‘It still hurts. I have ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.’

The slap came last year after Rock made a joke about Pinkett-Smith’s bald spot, caused by alopecia.

Rock had joked that Pinkett-Smith was rocking a ‘GI Jane’ look, prompting her husband to storm onto the stage and slap him, and he later repeated: ‘Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!’

During his new stand-up special, Rock joked about his struggle in the year since.

‘Anyone who says ‘words hurt’ has never been punched in the face,’ he said.

But I’m not a victim, honey. You will never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying,” Rock said. He joked that he ‘took that shit like [Manny] Pacquaio.

The crowd in the audience roared with laughter as those at home took to social media to weigh in.

“Like most comedians, I am continually grateful for the existence of Chris Rock. Thank you comedy gods,” wrote fellow comedian Jim Gaffigan.

Listen to me when I tell you. THIS IS THE WILDEST MIC DROP OF ALL TIME. NUF RESPEC’, the Twitter user wrote.

That user was referencing the microphone drop at the end of his special when he responds to those who have asked why he didn’t slap Smith back, saying, ‘You know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of the whites.

Fellow comedian Jim Gaffigan thanked the comedy gods for Chris Rock after his special

Twitter users applauded the comedian for his hits on Saturday night

“Good for you Rock,” wrote one person who praised the comedian.

The internet quickly turned snippets of the standup special into memes.

“Chris Rock slapped Will Smith in the perfect/best way,” said one Twitter user, citing a tweet that included a snippet from the standup special.

“This is someone still processing what happened,” said another user. ‘He knows he just slapped and slapped Smith hard. But in his eyes, as he bows, you can see the emotion, the anger, the pain. Good for you Rock.

“Chris Rock just slapped Will Smith the right way onstage,” one person said.

However, not everyone on social media has sided with the comedian.

Others took to Twitter to express their frustration that Rock has repeatedly “slammed” black women, including Meghan Markle and Pinkett-Smith.

Chris Rock called Jada Pinkett-Smith and said that Meghan Markle played the career card. Beat up black women. Clowns’, wrote a verified user.

‘I want to ask Rock, ‘do you feel better after that?’ Let me be clear… I am NOT excusing Smith’s actions at the Oscars. For me though, I will always know that Rock missed a HUGE opportunity to be the bigger man in this situation and teach a valuable lesson. He wasted it,” Variety editor Clayton Davis wrote.

“I think you need to let this go though, I know what happened to you was bad, but it seems like a brother looks down on another brother when he’s already on the floor.” There’s nothing uplifting about this,’ said one person.

Not everyone on social media was supportive of Rock’s jokes during his stand-up special.

Some said he ‘needs to drop this’ and move on from the slap

One person said Rock ‘wasted’ his chance to be the biggest man

Among the audience members who reportedly found it funny was Janina Gavankar, a longtime friend of Meghan Markle’s.

According page sixGavankar was backstage for the live taping on Saturday and saw Rock making jokes about her friend.

Sources told the outlet that Gavankar, 42, was with his friend Dave Chapelle to see the performance at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theater.

“Janina seemed to be really enjoying the show, she was standing by the TV screens and laughing,” a witness said.

Rock made jokes about Meghan and Prince Harry during his introduction, specifically about his interview with Oprah and how a royal had allegedly raised concerns about the color of his children’s skin.

On Saturday, Rock said the former actress was just dealing with ‘In-law shit.

‘Like, who is this Meghan Markle girl? She seems like a nice lady, she just complains,” Rock said.

‘Like, didn’t light-skinned win the lottery? Rock joked when he called the royal family the ‘OGs of racism’.

The comedian said Markle was “acting dumb” for going on Oprah and saying she didn’t know how racist the royal family could be.

‘That’s the royal family, didn’t you google those sons of bitches? They are the original racists. They invented colonialism,’ he joked.

“They invested in slavery like it was ‘Shark Tank,'” he continued.

It’s unclear if Gavankar laughed at the jokes directed at her friend, but Page Six reported that she had attended other shows where the material was recited.

Rock made jokes about Meghan and Prince Harry during his set, specifically his interview with Oprah.

The comedian said Markle was “acting dumb” for going on Oprah and saying she didn’t know how racist the royal family could be.

Following the Sussexes’ interview with Oprah in 2021, Gavankar (seen here at Meghan and Harry’s wedding) appeared on UK TV stations to defend her friend.

Gavankar is a longtime friend of Markle’s and attended the royal wedding in 2018.

Gavankar is a longtime friend of Markle’s and attended the royal wedding in 2018.

Following the Sussexes’ interview with Oprah in 2021, the ‘Vampire Diaries’ actress took to UK television networks to defend her friend.

“Although their ‘memories may vary’, ours is not because we lived through it with them,” Gavankar said at the time.

“And there are a lot of emails and text messages to back that up,” he said on “This Morning.”