‘It still hurts’: Chris Rock speaks about Will Smith slap for first time

Chris Rock has spoken at length for the first time about being slapped by Will Smith during the Oscars, almost a year since the scandal that shocked millions watching around the world.

"Everybody knows, yes it happened, I got slapped a year ago - I got smacked by this motherfucker," Rock said. "And people are like, 'Did it hurt?' It still hurts. I've got Summertime ringing in my ears."

Rock appeared weary and frustrated as he spoke about Smith at the end of his stand-up show Selective Outrage, which was streamed live on Netflix from the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore on Saturday night.

During last year's Oscar ceremony, Smith, who went on to win best actor that night, smacked Rock in the middle of the broadcast after he joked about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, having a bald head, which she shaves due to alopecia. After yelling at Rock from his seat, Smith walked on stage to smack Rock in the face. The comedian later declined to press charges.

Days later Rock performed in Boston but said on stage then: "I'm still kind of processing what happened. So at some point I'll talk about that shit. And it will be serious and funny." Despite going on a world tour in between, this is the first time the comedian has spoken at length about the incident.

He rejected people describing himself and Smith as fighting, saying: "First of all, I know you can't tell on camera but Will Smith is significantly bigger than me. We are not the same size. Will Smith does movies with his shirt off. You ain't never seen me do a movie with my shirt off. I'm in a movie getting open-heart surgery, I've got on a sweater.

"Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie. Do you think I auditioned for that part? He played Muhammad Ali, I played Pookie in New Jack City."

Rock revealed that the slap had inspired the name of his show.

"Will Smith practices selective outrage. Everybody knows what the fuck happened. And everybody really knows I had nothing to do with that shit. I didn't have any 'entanglements'," he said, referring to Pinkett Smith's description of the affair she had with rapper August Alsina while married to Smith. Pinkett Smith made the admission directly to Smith on an episode of her online show, Red Table Talk.

He said he did not retaliate on the night "because I got parents. Because I was raised. And you know what my parents taught me? Don't fight in front of white people," he said, throwing his microphone to the ground to end the show.

Smith has repeatedly talked about the slap since, publicly apologising to Rock the day after on Instagram, writing: "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." Months later, he said he had reached out to Rock but "he's not ready to talk".