Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars during the insane year “Moonlight” won only after “La La Land” was wrongly declared the winner. So, he knows a lot about wild Oscar ceremonies. And he brought that expertise to his monologue on Monday night’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” by devoting a huge portion of it to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars on Sunday.
Among other things, Kimmel joked that the whole thing bummed him out because it means “I’ve only now hosted the second-craziest Oscars of all-time.” He also talked about the widely held understanding that Will Smith thought he was defending his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, which he said was a situation in which Smith was “damned if you do, Ted Cruz if you don’t.”
And Kimmel also had a pretty innovative idea for how Smith and Rock could possibly patch things up. You can watch the whole monologue at the top of the page, or read on for our recap.
“I wonder if there’s anyone in the audience who doesn’t know what happened last night at the Oscars? Well, if you are one of the few who did not see what happened across the street from [us] at the Dolby Theater last night, what happened was this,” Kimmel said before running a clip of the slap.
“Wow indeed. The old Hitch slap. It’s now a part of our lives forever. We will never stop talking about this,” Kimmel continued. “It was so shocking. The only thing I can really compare it to is when Mike Tyson bit Holyfield’s ears. Even Kanye was like, ‘You went onstage and did what at an award show?”
Kimmel noted that Smith at first appeared to laugh at the joke Rock told at the expense of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. “But then he must have noticed that Jada was not amused. And he was like ‘Ugh oh– I’d better do something.’ And boy did he do something. I mean, in one stunning moment, the night went from #OscarsSoWhat to #OscarsSoWHAAAAAAT?!”
Kimmel said the situation “was the Hollywood version of your drunk Uncle starting a fight, ruining the wedding, and then standing up and giving a long toast to the bride and groom.” He also noted he didn’t think it was real at first.
I’ve Changed My Mind. I LOVE the Oscars!
“I was watching like most people, and I said to my wife ‘They did a really good job with that punch. It looked so real.’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah, they did.’ And about three seconds later, we realized it was because it was real. Which is a shame because we had already written about a page and a half of cleavage jokes. And those jokes won’t be used,” Kimmel joked.
Kimmel praised Rock for how he handled the moment. “He didn’t even flinch when Will Smith slapped him. I would have been crying so hard,” Kimmel said, noting that Rock went right into the category he was there to announced “as if he hadn’t just been slapped by the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air.’”
Kimmel also joked about all the people in the room who didn’t do anything. “Spider-Man was there. Aquaman was there. Catwoman. All sitting on their hands. No one helped Chris Rock,” Kimmel joked.
Kimmel then broke down the basics of what happened: That things had been tense since 2016, when Rock made fun of the Smiths for boycotting the Oscars due to the lack of black nominees when he hosted the show, and then Rock joked about Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head on Sunday, which might have contributed to Will Smith’s overreaction to Rock’s joke.
“What I assume Chris Rock didn’t know is that the reason Jada has a shaved head is because she has a medical condition called alopecia that causes people to lose their hair. She probably thought he was making fun of that.
“And so Will felt he had to defend his wife … and now I’m a little bummed because I’ve only now hosted the second-craziest Oscars of all-time. I only had like three years to enjoy that,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel later noted that “Will’s point of view is he was defending his wife, and that’s a tough position to be in. It’s ‘Damned if you do, Ted Cruz if you don’t.’” This of course being a reference to how Donald Trump repeatedly insulted Cruz’s wife in crude, personal terms during the 2016 Republican primary, only for Cruz to become one of Trump’s most devoted supporters.
Kimmel later joked about how the Los Angeles Police department said, “We don’t have any details about the incident. As soon as we do, we will make them available to the public.”
“I think we have all the details,” Kimmel quipped. “The LAPD was watching CBS. ‘NCIS’ was on last night.”
Of course, Kimmel also noted Smith’s apology on Monday. “That’s good. I’m glad he did that,” Kimmel added. “I mean, to me, there’s only one more step to make this right and that’s the Comedy Central Roast of Will Smith … hosted by Chris Rock!