• Rock revealed the reason he chose not to slap Will Smith at the Oscars.
• He also rooted for Smith and now watches Emancipation see him get whipped.
• Smith portrays a slave from Louisiana in a drama.

The reason Chris Rock chose not to slap Will Smith back at the Oscars ceremony last year has now been revealed.

In his Sunday, March 5 live Netflix special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, the comedian, 58, spoke in-depth for the first time about the infamous slap gate, which shocked Hollywood around the year 2022.

Sharing his response on he didn’t hit the King Richard actor back, Rock said, “A lot people go, ‘Chris how come you didn’t do nothing back? How come you didn’t do nothing back that night?’”

“Because I got parents, that’s why. Because I was raised,” Rock explained to the Baltimore Hippodrome Theatre crowd.

He added, “And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”

At the 94th Academy Awards, Smith stormed the stage when Rock made a joke about his alopecia-suffering wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Elsewhere in the special, Rock also said, “I have rooted for Will Smith my whole life. And now I watch Emancipation just to see him get whipped.”

Smith portrays a slave from Louisiana in the Antonie Fuqua–directed drama from 2021.

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