Will Smith Cracks Bald Joke in Video Resurfaced After Chris Rock Slap

A day after Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars over a joke about his wife's alopecia, a video surfaced from The Arsenio Hall Show where Smith cracked a similar joke.

In a 1991 appearance on the show, Smith made a joke about John B. Williams, bassist for the show's house band, The Posse. In the clip, resurfaced by Twitter user @Peter_OKH, Smith says that everyone has their own rules to follow,

"Like, he has a rule—the bass player? He's got a rule: He's gotta wax his head every day. That's a rule!" Smith says, pointing at Williams, who laughs and nods.

Though the comment attached to the video says that Smith made the joke "about someone with Alopecia," Williams has not said whether or not he has the disease. Alopecia is an autoimmune disorder that causes the body's immune system to attack hair follicles, leading to hair loss.

There are multiple types of alopecia, and the most common is alopecia areata, which causes hair to fall out in clumps. Typically alopecia only affects parts of the head, which can lead some who suffer from the disease to shave their heads for an even look. But there are more severe varieties: Alopecia areata totalis is losing all the hair on the head, while alopecia areata universalis is losing all the hair all over the body.

Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, has been open about her alopecia since 2021, when she shared a photo of her shaved head on Instagram.

"Now at this point I can only laugh. Y'all know I've been struggling with alopecia," she said at the time, and wrote in a caption: "Me and this alopecia are going to be friends... period!"

On Sunday's Oscar broadcast, Rock made a joke at Pinkett Smith's expense.

"Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see it," he said, referring to Pinkett Smith's shaved head and the 1997 film in which Demi Moore shaved her head to join the military.

Smith quickly walked on stage and slapped Rock, before returning to his seat and shouting: "Keep my wife's name out your f****** mouth!"

"Wow, dude, it was a G.I. Jane joke," Rock responded, to Smith repeating his shout: "Keep my wife's name out your f****** mouth!"

"I'm going to, okay?" Rock replied, adding "That was the... greatest night in the history of television."

Smith later apologized during his acceptance speech for Best Actor in King Richard.

"I know to do what we do, you've got to be able to take abuse, you've got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you've got to be able to have people disrespecting you, and you've got to smile, and you've got to pretend like that's OK," Smith said in part.

"Denzel [Washington] said to me a few minutes ago, he said, 'At your highest moment, be careful. That's when the devil comes for you.' It's like, I want to be a vessel for love."

"I want to apologize to the Academy, I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees," he added, joking that he hopes "the Academy invites me back."

Newsweek reached out to Will Smith's representatives for comment.