Bill Maher Says Will Smith's Chris Rock Slap Was Twitter Personified

While there's lots of POVs on Will Smith's slap -- one person has a take we haven't heard, and that'd be Bill Maher ... who sees it as a microcosm of society at large these days.

We got the HBO host and legendary comic Tuesday on "TMZ Live," and he kept it as honest as ever when dishing his thoughts on the whole Oscars saga. Long story short ... BM seems to think Will's reaction was literally faux Twitter outrage encapsulated in, well, 'Real Time.'

Check out Bill's perspective ... because it really feels spot-on as far as what exactly happened, or at least what we all saw anyway.

Bill gives the play-by-play, explaining that Will laughed at Chris Rock's "G.I. Jane" joke at first -- apparently finding some humor in it, or so it would seem -- but then changing his tune on a dime, which looked to be in direct response to how Jada Pinkett reacted ... AKA, not well.

It was then that Will got up and did what he did, which Bill says was a total overreaction -- not dissimilar from what he believes a lot of Twitter justice warriors do on the daily.

In his mind, a lot of folks might think something is funny at first (privately) but then look around the room and realize they aren't "allowed" to actually feel that way ... and then pivot accordingly, oftentimes resulting in overblown indignation.

That's what Bill thinks Will's episode amounted to -- him realizing Jada was more offended than he was, and taking on her cause in the most outrageous way possible ... going up and striking Chris, whom Bill defends to no end here -- even calling him the "hero" of the day.

There's more that Bill gets into here with us ... including the fact that he was actually at the same after-party that Will and co. eventually flocked to, and he's got some tea about how a prominent figure in the Black community analyzed Chris' reaction ... or lack thereof.