During a stand-up show on Sunday alongside Kevin Hart at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey, Rock said, “I’m not a victim, motherf—er,” according to a report from Us Weekly.
The comedian, 57, was addressing the March incident in which Will Smith walked onstage at the Academy Awards and slapped Rock in the face after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. (Jada, 50, lives with alopecia.)
“Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face,” Rock said Sunday, per Us Weekly. “Yeah, that s— hurt, motherf—er. … But I shook that s— off and went to work the next day … I don’t go to the hospital for a paper cut.”
Reps for Rock did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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Neilson Barnard/Getty Chris Rock and Will Smith
At the March 27 ceremony, before his win for Best Actor, Will, 53, walked onstage and hit Rock on live television after taking issue with the joke about wife Jada. Will explained in a statement days later that the punchline was “too much for me to bear” and he “reacted emotionally.”
Will, who later resigned from the Academy and was banned from attending their ceremonies for the next 10 years, said in his statement, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
In the time since the Oscars, Rock has made brief jokes at standup performances referencing the moment, but he hasn’t yet spoken about it in length. He has said he’ll “talk about it at some point” eventually.
Jada addressed the incident on the June 1 episode of her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk, saying, “About Oscar night: My deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out and reconcile.”
“With the state of the world today, we need ’em both, and we all actually need one another more than ever,” the actress continued. “Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years — and that’s [to] keep figuring out this thing called life together.”
Meanwhile, Rock and Hart, 43, recently wrapped their five-date joint comedy tour, titled Rock Hart: Only Headliners Allowed, with a show in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday.
Near the end of their Saturday show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden — during which they were also joined by Dave Chappelle — Hart surprised Rock onstage with a goat, in a nod to Hart considering the latter the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time).
In one moment from the show, Chappelle, 48, asked Rock, “What are you gonna name this goat, Chris?”
“The name is Will Smith,” Hart responded, as the audience laughed.
In all seriousness, though, “[Chris is] my G.O.A.T. — he’s my guy,” Hart told Jimmy Fallon Monday on The Tonight Show, recalling the memorable moment. “And I wanted him to feel that and experience the world of understanding how I feel about him in front of that audience.”
