Chris Rock mocking Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia is a worse crime than Will Smith’ slapping him for it

THE now-infamous Slap surely beats the time La La Land was wrongly announced as Best Picture winner as one of the Academy Awards’ most jaw-dropping moments.

Ironically, for Chris Rock, the moment came close to literally being jaw-dropping.

He is lucky Will Smith went for a relatively clean slap rather than the uppercuts he perfected when he played Muhammad Ali in the 2001 biopic.

I think the moment turned the Oscars — usually a virtue-signalling spectacle with dwindling viewing figures — into something that felt more relatable.

The outburst of bravado made the awards more human, less Hollywood.

Not all would agree, but those pretending to be so offended have clearly never been on a night out in any one of Britain’s cities.

In making a quip about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss, Rock obviously crossed a line for Will.

His wife has spoken candidly about her struggle with alopecia, a poorly understood and incurable autoimmune condition which triggers hair loss.

The actress has previously described how “terrifying” it was when chunks of her hair started to fall out in the shower and how it left her “shaking with fear”.

Yes, we live in a free society where comedians can — and should — be allowed to cross lines.

But I’d also like to think we live in a society that isn’t left aghast by one man swiping at another for making a cruel joke about his wife’s medical condition.

Is a bit of a slap really more hurtful than mocking someone’s disease? This doesn’t mean I condone violence.

It just means I’m a pragmatist, not a prig.

Men will have scraps with each other now and again and I don’t find that scandalous.

So, let’s all cut the outrage and get back to the real world.