Who Was Right: Chris or Will? Minnesota Weighs In
The moment Will Smith slapped Chris Rock during the Oscars Sunday is still causing buzz, and we now know whose side Minnesota is on.
Even if you weren't watching the Oscars on Sunday night, you no doubt have seen the video of the moment (or read about it anyway) when Will Smith stormed the stage and slapped Chris Rock in the face after he made a joke about Will's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith's, hair.
And while Will has now issued a formal apology to Chris, as well as his apology later that night to his fellow nominees, the Acadamy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (who puts on the Oscars) and just about everyone, else, the dust is starting to settle and we know whose side the Land of 10,000 Lakes is on in this continuing controversy.
Now, just about everybody has SOME opinion of just who was right-- or more right-- regarding this incident, right? But the crew over sports betting site, BetOnline.ag, just crunched the numbers to see whether Minnesota, as a state, is on Team Will or Team Chris.
To figure it out, they looked at geotagged Twitter data since Sunday evening, tracking the hashtags #TeamWill, #TeamWillSmith, or #TeamChris, #TeamChrisRock as well as phrases like "I support Will Smith" or "I support Chris Rock," the survey said. Those hashtags were very popular in the last 48 hours, the survey noted, and the crew at BetOnline.ag said they tracked over 200,000 tweets to compile their results.
And, perhaps it's our 'Minnesota Nice' coming through, but Minnesota is firmly in the Team Chris camp, the survey found, with the majority of online mentions feeling that Will Smith was wildly out of line in his actions and that there was no justification for a physical altercation.
That same Team Chris result was also noted 40 other states, including my home state of Wisconsin as well as both North and South Dakota. Down in Iowa, however, they're firmly in the Team Will camp.
You can check the full map all 50 states below. And, speaking of movies and Minnesota, did you know the following actors were all born here in the North Star State? Keep scrolling to take a look...
Listen to Curt St. John in the Morning
weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5