Snopes gets taken to the WOODSHED for 'pathetic' attempt to defend Will Smith



In the wake of the now-infamous "slap heard around the world," a video clip of actor Will Smith making a bald joke during an appearance on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1991 has resurfaced.

Even before winning the Academy Award for best actor, Smith had already made headlines by marching onstage to smack comedian Chris Rock across the face for making a joke about his wife's hair loss.

Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, suffers from alopecia, a condition defined by the Mayo Clinic as "hair loss (that) can affect just your scalp or your entire body." This includes, among others, androgenic alopecia (male-pattern baldness and female-pattern baldness), frontal fibrosing alopecia (a receding hairline), and alopecia areata, which is immune system-related and causes patchy hair loss.

Following Smith's unhinged reaction to Rock's joke at the Oscars, a video resurfaced on social media of Smith making a "bald joke" about Arsenio Hall’s bassist, John B. Williams, during a 1991 appearance on "The Arsenio Hall Show."


That time in 1991 when Will Smith made fun of a bald man on the Arsenio Hall Show and said \u201cawe these are jokes man c\u2019mon\u201d.\n#WillAndChris #WillSmithAssault #ChrisRock #WillSmithpic.twitter.com/LMUyjwj0d8
— ThePopPunkDad (@ThePopPunkDad) 1648506144


The so called "fact-checkers" on Snopes were quick to jump to Smith's defense with an article that seriously attempted to say Smith isn't a bald-joke hypocrite because Williams, though clearly bald, does not necessarily suffer from alopecia.

Never mind that the vast majority of Twitter posts on the topic said nothing about "alopecia"; Snopes dug up the "one viral version of this video" (Snopes' own words, not ours) that was captioned, "Now this is a video of Will Smith saying a joke about someone with alopecia" to make the case.


Did Will Smith once do the exact same thing \u2014 make a bald joke directed at a person with alopecia \u2014 that led him to hit Chris Rock at the Oscars?\n\n No, and here's how we know:https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/will-smith-arsenio-hall/\u00a0\u2026
— snopes.com (@snopes.com) 1648629902

"While this clip is real, there’s no evidence that Smith’s joke was directed at someone with alopecia," wrote Snopes.

"While Smith did make a bald joke during this appearance, there’s no evidence that Williams, like Pinkett Smith, has alopecia. We looked over Williams’ bio on his website, profiles of the artist, and several interviews, and found no mention of Williams having alopecia. It appears that this claim was made up out of whole cloth in order to increase the video’s virality by making Smith’s actions appear especially hypocritical," the article added.

Many people on Twitter felt that Snopes may have entirely missed the point:

So he just had regular hair loss from a past illness?\nHunh.\nAnd not "alopecia" which is the medical term for hair loss?\nThat's... an interesting and useless claim of a difference.\n\nGood job fact hiders.\nYou've worked hard to hide another fact.
— Bert Difig (@Bert Difig) 1648653284
Another case of it's true but we don't like the narrative so we'll say it's not true
— MyOpinion (@MyOpinion) 1648650583
Q. Did Will Smith or did he not make fun of another person\u2019s lack of hair? \nA. He did. \n\nYour pathetic attempt to excuse Will Smith\u2019s unacceptable behavior is duly noted. Please dont whine because people don\u2019t take you seriously as a \u201cfact check\u201d site.
— Reine (@Reine) 1648649978


Snopes you really are a bunch of dishonest hacks. Love how you add in the qualifier \u201cwith alopecia\u201d to say the Will Smith didn\u2019t make fun of someone\u2019s hair\u2026
— RandomDragon (@RandomDragon) 1648654653
No one takes your so called journalism! Seriously.
— Sloan section 31 (@Sloan section 31) 1648654578
Snopes is a CLOWN SHOW!pic.twitter.com/PH0wbwWPcy
— Cindy (@Cindy) 1648650615


Snopes keeps posting this, but has missed that male pattern baldness called androgenic alopecia. Clearly not the same type of alopecia but still, yes Smith did make a joke at someone with alopecia.
— LatCit (@LatCit) 1648630180
Pathetic @snopes; just pathetic.
— Connie McLou \ud83c\udf40\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u2618\ufe0f (@Connie McLou \ud83c\udf40\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u2618\ufe0f) 1648656827
You're nothing more than a mouthpiece for the lefties anymore. You're lack of any research before you make an ass of yourselves is pathetic.
— Erin (@Erin) 1648651840

Roberta McCain, mother of late Sen. John McCain, passes away at 108



Roberta McCain, the mother of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain (R), has passed away at the age of 108.

What are the details?

Cindy McCain, the widow of John McCain, announced the news Monday on Twitter, writing, "It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my wonderful Mother In-law, Roberta McCain. I couldn't have asked for a better role model or a better friend. She joins her husband Jack, her son John and daughter Sandy."

It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my wonderful Mother In-law, Roberta McCain. I couldn’t have a… https://t.co/JdfQmvEXfL
— Cindy McCain (@Cindy McCain)1602529225.0

Fox News reported:

A native of Muskogee, Okla., Roberta Wright was nearly 21 and a college student in southern California when she eloped to Tijuana, Mexico, in January 1933 with a young sailor named John S. McCain, Jr. He would go on to become a Navy admiral, like the father he shared a name with, and the couple would have three children — Jean, John and Joseph — within a decade.

Tributes poured in for the McCain family over the loss of their matriarch, an oil heiress who hit the campaign trail at the age of 96 to help John in his second campaign for president in 2008. John died in 2018 from a brain tumor.

His daughter and "The View" co-host, Meghan McCain, tweeted Monday, "I love you Nana. You're everything I ever aspired to be. Thank you for teaching us all about living life on your own terms with grit, conviction, intensity and love. There will never be another one like you, you will be missed every day. I wish my daughter had gotten to meet you."

I love you Nana. You’re everything I ever aspired to be. Thank you for teaching us all about living life on your ow… https://t.co/gFFJYNzNDn
— Meghan McCain (@Meghan McCain)1602532180.0

Longtime journalist Greta Van Susteren tweeted, "My very dear friend Roberta McCain died...108 1/2 and what a great run it was and what a great friend she was to me. She loved adventure..loved a good party. Yes, she was elderly but I still never believed this day would come..."

My very dear friend Roberta McCain died...108 1/2 and what a great run it was and what a great friend she was to me… https://t.co/WkDISJFw3n
— Greta Van Susteren (@Greta Van Susteren)1602532095.0

The Washington Post's obituary for Mrs. McCain noted that Sen. McCain said of his mother in his 1999 memoir, "Faith of My Fathers": "She was a willful, rebellious girl."

The Post's piece concluded:

In her 90s, Mrs. McCain spent three hours each Tuesday morning at the National Gallery of Art or the Freer Gallery of Art, whose collection of Chinese porcelain she particularly admired. Asked by Vogue to explain her longevity, good health and general fearlessness, she shrugged.

"I don't do anything I'm supposed to do. I don't exercise and today, I've already eaten a half a box of caramel popcorn," she told the magazine. "Honey, I've had a dream life, and it was all luck."