Chris Rock Had A History Of Making Jokes About Jada Pinkett-Smith Before Will Smith’s Oscars Slap

The slap heard around the world is a lot more complicated than any Twitter activists or other social media commentators may give it credit for — and no, what happened is not okay.

While the world — including Chris Rock himself — was recoiling from the slap delivered by Will Smith, everyone seemed to forget about the joke Rock made moments earlier about Jada Pinkett Smith and other similar jokes made by the comic in the past.

What did Chris Rock’s G.I. Jane 2 joke mean?

In 1997, a movie titled “G.I. Jane” was released in theaters starring Demi Moore, who played a Navy Seal and sported a shaved head during the film.

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Having no ties to the U.S. Navy or military, the joke made by Rock had to be a joke on Jada’s shaved head, despite knowing about the condition she has been struggling with.

In 2018, Jada released an episode of her Facebook talk show, Red Table Talk, titled “Body Confessions,” where she addressed why she has been keeping her hair short — revealing a diagnosis for an illness that has no cure.

Jada recalled the “terrifying" moment she first noticed she was losing "handfuls of hair" in the shower before being diagnosed with Alopecia.

"It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking with fear," she said. "That's why I cut my hair and continued to cut it."

Alopecia is an autoimmune disorder that results in unpredictable hair loss which caused Jada to simply shave it all off — a decision she has been very vocal about and one that has been an inspiration for women (and men) everywhere who suffer from the same affliction.

“I have alopecia & I don’t own a single Will Smith song but I’m going back and buying every album he’s ever put out for that smack he gave @chrisrock,” tweeted one person in support.

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Chris Rock has made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith in the past at another Oscars.

In 2016, the Oscars featured an all-white acting nominations list  — 20 nominees — for the second year in a row, causing a massive uproar that saw a lot of A-list celebrities boycotting the awards show.

Will, already having been nominated twice for performances in “Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness,” had not been nominated for his performance in the sports drama “Concussion”.

As a result of both of these grievances, Jada announced that she wouldn’t be attending the awards ceremony in a video, calling out to Rock and calling him a friend.

“Hey Chris, I won’t be at the Academy Awards, and I won’t be watching,” she said in the video. “But I can’t think of a better man to do the job at hand this year than you, my friend.”

As thanks, Rock made a joke about Jada and her video in his opening monologue as the host of the 2016 awards show.

“Jada’s gonna boycott the Oscars?” he asked the crowd. “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.”

As a comedian, this is his job. Making fun of the fact that Jada wasn’t headed to the awards show to win any awards in the first place is a quality joke — making fun of someone’s illness, however, is a step too far.

Perhaps the combination of the two pushed Will Smith's buttons for the last time, hence the violent reaction.

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Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.