While Jaden Smith is certainly not stirring up as much controversy lately as his father, Will Smith (who will ever forget that Oscars/ Chris Rock slap?) the musician and actor, 23, is ruffling more than just a few feathers with his latest viral interview comments. Last week, an old clip of Smith’s 2018 interview with rapper Big Boy went viral on the internet after it showed the young artist criticizing other people in his generation and insinuating he was smarter than others his age due to his upbringing.
“I’m very happy that I spent my childhood with more adults than I did with kids my own age,” Smith said. The Karate Kid star then went on to say (which many fans later found condescending) that if he hangs out with anyone in his age group that he finds them to be “dumb and concerned with frivolous things in life.”
LMFAOOO jaden smith is not real pic.twitter.com/7wI5OyA3OE
— kira (@kirawontmiss) April 17, 2022
Smith then appeared to do an impression of said people, yelling words like “selfie”, “phone” and “bro.” And he didn’t stop there. “I’m like, dude oh my god can we talk about the political and economic state of the world right now? Can we talk about what’s going on with the environment? Can we talk about other things?” Smith added, hinting that no one his age cares about the same issues.
His fans and Twitter users then began to mock him for his comments, and pointed out how his career was “literally jumpstarted by nepotism” (with his ultra-famous father, Will, 53, and mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, 50) and that “bragging about being smarter than other people doesn’t actually make you look better,” as another user wrote. Others started creating and sharing memes poking fun at Smith’s “holier than thou” attitude, as seen below:
Jaden Smith in first grade seeing the kids talk about power rangers instead of the global warming crisis pic.twitter.com/DpbYpEEdLl
— ㄚ尺Ꮆ ᗪ尺乇山 (@Drew74_i) April 19, 2022
Me: Hey Jaden how are yo-
Jaden Smith: How am I? How is anybody? Our current sociopolitical climate is but an arduous philosophical toil, ontological discussion just doesn’t happen the—You know what you wouldn’t even get it. Just go drink your Baja blast.
— mina (@kiranmayeet) April 18, 2022
Jaden Smith when he sees kids going to birthday parties instead of discussing politics and the economic state of the world: pic.twitter.com/3dACXFAPwQ
— Haadyn (@jihadydon) April 17, 2022
8 year old Jaden smith when jada gave him a spider man themed birthday party instead of a book study on the war of mesopotamia pic.twitter.com/9C8ulHTFzH
— Kam (@KamsIntern) April 17, 2022
As Smith’s name continued to be a hot trending topic on Twitter, he made a meme template of his own in response. The “Summertime in Paris” singer uploaded a selfie for his 8 million followers and wrote in his caption, “Me: Hey Wanna Talk About The Economic And Political State Of World Together. Girl: Nah Me: Ok Cool.”
Me: Hey Wanna Talk About The Economic And Political State Of World Together.
Girl: Nah
Me: Ok Cool pic.twitter.com/rkQzZ4jZbb
— Jaden (@jaden) April 18, 2022
Earlier this month after his father’s Oscars incident, Smith was nothing but supportive, shortly tweeting afterwards, “And That’s How We Do It.” Since garnering attention for his 2018 interview comments, it appears Smith has moved on and continues to share photos from his time at the opening weekend of Coachella on Twitter and Instagram.
