Assault at The Oscars

America has had those comedy roasts for years. I can remember seeing a clip of Johnny Carson's from 1968 featuring the great Groucho Marx and if you ever saw the Pamela Anderson one from the 2000's where Bea Arthur was a guest and the things they were saying about her and comparing the size of Tommy Lee to her's was hillarious. Bea was well into her 80's then but was having a great time.

We have always had jokes about appearance and ability in the UK and maybe much less so now. Ronnie Corbett with his height, Des O'Connor's singing talent, Brucie with his chin, Esther Rantzen and others with their teeth but often the target was in on the jokes. Taking Brucie for instance he was well known to wear a toupee and it was joked about but I never saw it done in his presence on TV so we did know where to draw the line.

The roasting humour/US humour I always thought was a bit more sharp and almost bitchy like certain strands of gay humour/drag queens can be.

Absolutely sph. Lots of toddlers go through a biting phase because their ability to express how they feel hasn't caught up with their ability to feel those emotions. We help our children, encouraging them to 'use their words'. Not just to stop them taking a lump out of their brother or sister, or so they know how to behave in society, but it's in their interests to be able to articulate what's bothering them.

Violence in response to a self-defined level of unacceptable offence is just violence with a side-serving of narcissism. It's nothing to do with self-defence.

Would you just like us to go back to a society where people challenge each other to a duel at dawn?

Or a society where men in a saloon flip a table over, shout "them's fightin' words!" and go outside for a shootout?

I've just looked up the tennis slapping, and it's very obviously wrong and many people are calling for him to be banned for life, with a general comments that the penalties for bad behaviour in tennis need to be more severe. But worth noting that if he'd slapped his opponent during the match it would have been an automatic default.

But also noting that the match was a juniors match, albeit at a senior level and players who have the potential to go on to become successful professionals. It likely that the slap was to do with something that happened off-court, but it's entirely possible that the losing player felt that his dream career was slipping through his fingers. His family may have got into debt to invest in his future, and he's lost out on a win that would have secured a sponsorship deal. From his point of view, the consequences of a loss could be far worse than thinking you are being laughed at. Yet violence was still wrong.

Thing is, you are just wrong on what is expected as a film/TV awards ceremony attendee. Yes, you are expected to ‘be a good sport’ and take a joke aimed at you. It’s the price you pay for being insanely rich and successful, which you by default are when you are the butt of a joke at an awards ceremony.

Having a thick skin is a professional requirement when you place yourself in the public eye the way Jada Pickett-Smith has.

There were plenty of other jokes made at the expense of attendees.

Also there is no evidence that Chris Rock was aware of the alopecia diagnosis. Not everyone follows the ins and outs of the lives of the rich and famous.

He appears to have been making a joke about a hairstyle. Something that has been done many times about male and female celebs.

Find it really unnerving this kind of talk of censorship. Always ultimately comes down to the idea that someone's decision of whether a piece of art (be it a joke, a video game or TV/film - all of which have been mentioned) is offensive or goes beyond a certain accepted line, when we all know art is completely subjective, that is the point of it.
We've seen it repeatedly with this Government that they believe they are the judge as to what is morally acceptable and what type of jokes/shows are to be allowed airtime on the BBC. It deeply deeply troubles me.

Also find it very confusing that there's talk of white male privilege in the same breath as the promotion of the idea that it's perfectly fine for a woman to hit a man. What a bizarre contradiction to make.

Personally I think it's clearly, clearly wrong what happened at the Oscars (and judging by Smith's statements, so does he). I don't expect his career to be too damaged in the long term and neither do I particularly think it should be. A suspension should be suffice to send the message that it is absolutely not acceptable behaviour.

Another thing to consider is the safety of performers. Comedians in particular but also others. Are we now to say that if someone deems something offensive it is OK to attack a performer?

I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere but I’m wondering if hair is a particularly sensitive thing in Hollywood/America? Is it the only part of a face or body that invites comment in this way? I’m thinking how Black styles provoke comment and often censure, a kind of prejudice. Is there something else underlying a comment on hair and/or the lack of it? He couldn’t have said anything else about her looks, could he? So does hair represent something, power (Old Testament Samson’s story, v old, very potent) in a away that is difficult to express. Just musing….

Elton has made jokes about his hair over the years to be fair.

If we're talking hypotheticals then I tend to agree with this. He shouted to keep his wife's name out his mouth. Any joke about her (which SHE found offensive) was going to provoke the same response I'd imagine.

And as for this constant "if Jada had hit him" idea - reading through this thread you can see that some people clearly find violence by a woman towards a man acceptable in certain circumstances (something I find repulsive having had a male friend who was a victim of domestic violence) so yes, I'm sure there would be plenty of sympathisers had that happened, although I get the feeling it's much the same people who think what Will did was OK.

So now we're making a comparison with a completely different situation where someone reacted in a completely different way to a completely different thing happening to them in order to justify something that didn't happen?
What a mess.

Would you say it would be OK for Jada to have got up on stage and hit Chris Rock?

Elton has been in the public eye for over 50 years. Ironically his first big hit was in the charts when I was born and there were as many stories about his hairline as his private life over the years with is hair transplants and wearing of hats. I think it was in the early 1990's he settled on his current hairpiece wig style and now we almost forget about it. I wonder how many younger people might see something like the "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" promo film and suddenly notice something different about his hair having only known the wig era Elton and seen him wearing his baseball caps and strawhats from the 1980's.

If people suddenly change their appearance then comments will be made in the press if you are a public figure.