ILOSM fam,’ sometimes the best medicine for pain, is laughter. At the NAACP Awards on Saturday (March 30, 2019) night, that’s exactly what Chris Rock administered to the audience when he cracked everyone up, as he ripped Empire star, Jussie Smollett, to comedic shreds.
Matter of fact, Chris apparently was warned -presumably by the award show’s producers- not to do any Jussie jokes. Not sure why that is, but it may have been prompted by one of two factors- Jussie was still nominated for the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ and they maybe didn’t want to look bad; or it could have been due to the show not knowing whether or not Jussie would still be attending the ceremony.
However, in true no-holds-barred Chris Rock fashion- he defied the ‘rules’ and kept it real about his views on Jussie.
At first, Chris Rock opened up with this:
“They said no Jussie Smollett jokes … I know. What a waste of light skin. You know what I could do with that light skin? That curly hair? My career would be outta here! I’d be f*cking running Hollywood!”
He didn’t stop there though:
“What the hell was he thinking? From now on … you’re ‘Jessie’ from now on, you don’t get the ‘u’ no more. That ‘u’ was respect, you ain’t getting no respect from me.”
The audience couldn’t help but laugh, presumably not only at Jussie Smollett, but at their own pain as well, after having stood behind the brotha when he initially claimed he was attacked. Like I said…sometimes, we’ve just gotta laugh at our pain and then get over it.
One person didn’t laugh though, Jussie’s supporter and Black*ish actress, Yara Shahidi, who told the audience, “I stand with Jussie,” after she and the cast accepted the ‘Outstanding Comedy Series’ award.
