Comedian, actress, and media personality Sheryl Underwood said she’s scared to do standup following comedian Chris Rock’s slap incident at the 2022 Oscars.
Underwood revealed her thoughts during a recent episode of CBS’ hit CBS round-table show, The Talk. She has been a co-host on the Emmy Award-winning show since September 2011.
“I’m going to say this as a comic: I am afraid now to get on a stage,” she said. “In my third show, when everyone’s been drinking, do you now believe that you can get up and slap me [if you don’t like my joke]?”
Her sentiments were in response to the incident involving Rock and comedian Jim Carrey’s reaction to it during an interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings.
Will Smith walked on stage and smacked Rock during the Oscars award show on Mar. 27, after he made a joke about the King Richard star’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith. He jokingly called Pinkett-Smith G.I. Jane because of her bald head, which she shaved due to suffering from a scalp condition called alopecia.
“I was sickened by the standing ovation. I felt like, Hollywood is just spineless…it really felt like, this is a really clear indication that we are the not the cool club anymore,” Carrey told King.
“I would’ve announced…that I was suing Will for $200 million, ’cause that video is gonna be there forever. It’s gonna be ubiquitous.”
Underwood added that no one checked up on Rock to see if he was okay after the entire ordeal.
“There’s gotta be accountability,” she said on The Talk.
The 57-year-old comedian returned to the stage on Mar. 31 for a show in Boston that would kick off his Ego Death Tour. During the show, he said that he was still processing that Smith slapped him in the face.
“What’s up, Boston? How was your weekend?” he asked the crowd. “I don’t have a bunch of s**t about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing what happened, so, at some point, I’ll talk about that s**t. It will be serious and funny.”
Although the 53-year-old has since apologized, Rock has not publicly responded to him. Ticket sales for the comedian’s shows have also reportedly skyrocketed since the whole debacle.
