Is Will Smith too toxic to be taken seriously?

After 9/11, American comedians found themselves in a tricky situation. Make fun of any of the usual standbys of their trade – politicians, authority figures, Rudy Giuliani, anyone who wore a badge for a living – and they were liable to be shouted down in an angry chorus of: ‘Too soon!’ Yet if all the jokes they could tell were sanitised and tame, their reputations would decline in an instant. It was a bold comic who tried to argue that telling jokes was a natural human response to disaster; many audiences simply refused to find things funny.

Will Smith now finds himself in a similar position. The one-time Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has been a Hollywood pariah since he assaulted Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars in March. His expulsion from the Academy for the next decade has meant he will not be allowed to attend the Oscars next year, or for many more years to come.