its possible, maybe even likely, that he didn't initially get that the joke was about her hair, and was just kinda laughing along politely, and it came to him, when he saw Jada's reaction, however for such a reaction, he would then have to assume that Rock knows she has a condition and is choosing to mock it.. and i don't think he had enough processing time to get there, so it seems he just overcompensated, because HE knows he has a condition and he knows he just fucked up

Plus if his whole thing is just 'keep my wife's name out your mouth', period... yeah that doesn't play either because again, he was laughing. (that's just shit you say in the moment tho)

obv he handled this thing badly, and its funny because if i had to guess, the three of them will hash this out, but it's all gonna take on a life of its own, with everything from a billion think pieces, scold tweets, and anti cancel culture stuff...with everyone from the view to ben shapiro needing to weigh in.. the whole gamut