You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. Everyone knew it was coming. The only question was: who would be the one to make the inevitable joke about The Slap during the 2023 Academy Awards?
It turns out the honors went to host Jimmy Kimmel, who made the first (and only?) reference to when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for failing to keep his wife’s name out of his f*cking mouth at last year’s Oscars. “It was somewhere year for diversity and inclusion. We have nominees from every corner of Dublin,” he joked, referring to, among others, The Banshees of Inisherin star Colin Farrell and Aftersun hunk Paul Mescal. “Five Irish actors are nominated tonight, which means the odds of another fight on stage just went way up.” Later, Kimmel said that if anyone in attendance 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.”
He continued:
“If anything unpredictable or violent happens during the show, sit there and do absolutely nothing. Maybe even give the assailant a hug. And if any of you get mad at a joke and decide you want to get jiggy with it — it’s not going to be easy.”
Kimmel also covered another hot-button issue: Scientology and Tom Cruise, who he referred to as “L Ron Hubba Hubba.” Cruise, it’s worth noting, is not in attendance.
Smith previously told former The Daily Show host Trevor Noah that he “just lost it” over Rock’s joke. “That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time,” he said. “I guess what I would say is you just never know what someone is going through. I was going through something that night. … It’s like when they say ‘Hurt people hurt people,’ you know?”
You can find the complete list of Oscar winners here.
Source: https://uproxx.com/movies/oscars-the-slap-joke/