At the 2023 Oscars ceremony on Sunday, 12th March 2023, Jimmy Kimmel used his opening monologue to make fun of Will Smith’s well-known slapping incident and criticize Hollywood’s lack of action regarding the assault.
Jimmy Kimmel Trolls Will Smith’s Oscars Slapgate Incident
Smith caused a stir globally when he physically struck Rock on stage after he made a comment about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her shaved head. Despite the incident, Smith went on to win the Best Actor award.
But Kimmel was not shy in addressing it. In his comments, Kimmel said: “If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point during the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute long speech.”
Those comments arrived on the back end of Chris Rock also being very vocal against Smith in his recent special, Selective Outrage. During the show, Rock retaliated against Smith’s Academy ban by ridiculing him and his wife in front of the audience.
Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s infidelity and also mentioned Smith’s on-stage slap. Furthermore, Rock compared Smith to Suge Knight, who is currently serving time for manslaughter, while mocking him.
The following comments confirmed as much: “You all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith. It still hurts. I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.” While there was an effort to try and mock Smith for his actions, the social media response was not entirely positive.
This was on the grounds that Smith’s actions should not have been addressed since it had the impact of giving him more publicity which people felt he did not deserve. One person wrote: “What would have shown more class and dignity is to not address the incident at all,not giving Will Smith any attention.Chris Rock took care of that.”
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