[teejers1]

I really don't understand the pearl-clutching here.  Neither man was really "in the right," but none of that behavior rises to anything more than "talk sh*t, get hit."  Both sides exercised poor conduct that did not warrant any kind of law enforcement response.  It was a weak joke at best, and the response was an open-handed slap meant to shame and not injure.

It's funny you say that.  Here's an email comment from a friend on the incident:

Can we talk for a second about the form and force of the punch/slap?  It looks to be delivered with perfect form and fairly hard, by a much bigger man – recall Smith’s turn in Ali – but it doesn’t even faze Rock.  I’m not going down the “was it staged” trail, I tend to agree it’s too weird and too raw for that.  But let’s give some props to C. Rock for not having a glass jaw!

I agree with my friend - that was a slap in form, but delivered with WAY more intensity and intent to injure than you assume.

Yet another aspect of Rock handling the situation well!

[teejers1]

I really don't understand the pearl-clutching here.  Neither man was really "in the right," but none of that behavior rises to anything more than "talk sh*t, get hit."  Both sides exercised poor conduct that did not warrant any kind of law enforcement response.  It was a weak joke at best, and the response was an open-handed slap meant to shame and not injure.

It's funny you say that.  Here's an email comment from a friend on the incident:

Can we talk for a second about the form and force of the punch/slap?  It looks to be delivered with perfect form and fairly hard, by a much bigger man – recall Smith’s turn in Ali – but it doesn’t even faze Rock.  I’m not going down the “was it staged” trail, I tend to agree it’s too weird and too raw for that.  But let’s give some props to C. Rock for not having a glass jaw!

I agree with my friend - that was a slap in form, but delivered with WAY more intensity and intent to injure than you assume.

Yet another aspect of Rock handling the situation well!