Kyle Sandilands defends Will Smith’s Oscars outburst after similar run-in with Dave Hughes

Kyle Sandilands has defended actor Will Smith’s violent outburst at the Oscars while reflecting on his own close call with a comedian at the Logies.

KIIS radio host Kyle Sandilands has defended Will Smith, after the actor struck comedian Chris Rock at the Academy Awards yesterday.

Sandilands said he sympathises with Smith and understands why he became violent after he too was ridiculed at the 2007 Logie Awards by comedian Dave Hughes.

“I’ve sat in an audience at the TV Week Logie awards where a joke was made about me and that’s fine,” he said on the Kyle and Jackie O show.

“I did think, ‘The cameras are on me’ and I’m clapping because I’m thinking, ‘Do I clap and smile here? Or do I get up and knock Dave Hughes unconscious on television?’

Kyle Sandilands has defended Will Smith’s violent Oscars outburst.

Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock onstage. Picture: Robyn Beck / AFP

“So you’re smiling and clapping because you know the cameras are on but I was raging and I thought, ‘Do I bash this dog or not?’ … If [the joke] had been my wife I would’ve cut his throat on live television.’

Sandilands, 50, was referring to a 2007 incident in which Logies co-host Hughes referred to him as a “dickhead” on stage.

Hughes had made a joke about singer Anthony Callea announcing he was gay.

“What’s next? Guy Sebastian’s going to reveal he’s got curly hair? Shannon Noll’s going to reveal he’s a bogan? Kyle Sandilands is going to reveal he’s a massive d**khead?” Hughes told the crowd.

During yesterday’s 94th Academy Awards ceremony, Smith, 53, left viewers horrified when he stormed the stage while Rock, 57, was presenting and slapped him.

Moments prior, Rock had made a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith by likening her shaved head to Demi Moore’s in the ‘90s film G.I. Jane.

Sandilands wanted to violently attack Dave Hughes for mocking him at the 2007 Logies.

Rock was reportedly unaware that Pinkett Smith suffers from Alopecia, an auto-immune condition that causes hair loss.

During an on-air debate about the incident with his co-hosts Jackie ‘O’ Henderson and Brooklyn Ross on Tuesday, Sandilands said he doesn’t blame Smith for getting physical.

“I like Chris Rock, I think he's funny but I don’t blame Will Smith. I don’t blame him for slapping a b****,” he said.

Ross replied, “You can’t go around punching everyone over a joke”.

Sandilands said, “Yeah you can, it was proved last night on television”.

Ross then asked, “So if people come and punch you over jokes you make, is that OK?” to which Sandilands responded, “Yep that’s fine, front up, step up dog, let’s see what you’ve got.”

Other supporters of Smith included the Today show’s Karl Stefanovic.

“I get comedians, I get the whole thing having been the subject matter over the years but if your wife is spoken to like that I’m sorry, you’re going to have it coming at some point,” he said on the show.

“I know it’s the Oscars and what he did was over the top.”

Today show entertainment reporter Brooke Boney also weighed in by condemning Rock.

“To hell with black men who put black women down for the benefit of a mostly white audience. As if getting slapped on stage is worse than humiliating someone because they’re disabled,” she tweeted.