Chris Rock has declined the offer of being the host for the Oscars in 2023. As everyone remembers, Rock was infamously slapped by Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars. The slap occurred after Rock had made the infamous “G.I. Jane” joke that was targeting Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Everyone saw how Rock had to continue throughout the show as if nothing happened, although after the show this was not the case. There were a slew of posts on social media telling each side of the story, but nothing was commented on until months later when Smith released his video titled “It’s been a minute…,” where he apologizes to Rock for his actions in it. 

Rock has also been offered to do a Super Bowl commercial but turned that down too. The Arizona Republic had said that Rock thought of it as returning to a scene of a crime. Rock jokingly referred to the O.J. Simpson murder trial while comparing the two at the Arizona Financial Theatre in downtown Phoenix during his show. 

When looking at how we could see it from Rock’s perspective, it would be like being embarrassed in front of millions, only to go out there in front of those millions and talking about what had happened to you and how you felt after being embarrassed. People don’t just get over being shown up and shown out like that and if it wasn’t for his years of experience being a comedian on stage, most people would’ve fallen apart after being put in that situation. 

It also makes you look at these giants like the Oscars and the Super Bowl making someone do something for money and entertainment. Rock has pride. He has self-respect. So why would he put himself out there again in order to either talk about this personal issue or be the butt of another person’s joke all for money. Some people don’t just sell themselves for stuff like that.

Imagine if you had something you weren’t proud of that was shown off to the world. You wouldn’t want that to happen to you again right? But then a huge company or organization comes to you and wants you to go back in front of that world and do it again for a bunch of money. What would you do? A lot of people may say yes because of the payout, but others have respect for themselves and don’t want to go through that again. 

Money is the problem as well as respect. These companies don’t have respect for you and when they see that they can just shove money in your face and put you back on that stage, it shows the company and the world what lengths you might go through just to get a dollar.