Judd Apatow Tweets, Deletes Criticism of Will Smith: 'Pure Narcissism'

Hollywood director Judd Apatow slammed Oscar-winning actor Will Smith on Twitter for slapping comedian Chris Rock onstage for a joke about Smith’s wife on Sunday night, calling Smith’s assault “pure narcissism” before deleting the tweet.

Smith, who would later win the Oscar for Best Actor, attacked Rock during a comic monologue, as Breitbart News reported:

Smith initially appeared to laugh after Rock made fun of his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, for her alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss. Rock suggested that she star in G.I. Jane 2, referring to Demi Moore, who shaved her head in the original.

Then, Smith climbed onstage, walked up to Rock, and struck him in the face before returning to his seat. Rock, stunned, exclaimed: “Wow! Will Smith just smacked the sh*t out of me!”

Smith, from the audience, yelled: “Keep my wife’s name out your f*ckin’ mouth!”

Rock responded: “Wow, dude! It was a G.I. Jane joke.”

Smith repeated: “Keep my wife’s name out your f*ckin’ mouth!”

“I’m going to, OK? Wow. OK. That was a … greatest night the history of television,” Rock continued.

After the incident, security did not remove Smith, nor was he arrested. He went on to deliver an acceptance speech after winning Best Actor for portraying Richard Williams, father to tennis stars Venus and Serna Williams, in King Richard.

The audience applauded his speech.

Apatow tweeted in disapproval, noting that Smith had drawn attention from the Williams family’s moving story of success:

“Seems like Will Smith’s plan to get comedians and the world to not make jokes about him is not going to pan out. The Williams family must be furious. Pure narcissism. Also- GI Jane was gorgeous. What exactly is insulting about being compared to a ripped, stunning Demi? #Oscars,” Apatow tweeted at 8:11 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

The tweet was later deleted.

He also tweeted: “‘He could have killed him. That’s pure out of control rage and violence. They’ve heard a million jokes about them in the last three decades. They are not freshman in the world of Hollywood and comedy. He lost his mind.”

That tweet, too, was apparently deleted.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.