By now, most of us have heard about the incident during the 94th Academy Awards where Will Smith slapped Chris Rock over a joke he said about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. In fact, it happened so long ago – on March 27, 2022, to be exact – that most of us have already gotten over the incident.
The joke was about Jada’s bald head, which she shaved as a result of being diagnosed with alopecia – a disease that causes hair loss as the immune system attacks hair follicles. “Jade, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it,” said Chris, referring to Jordan O’Neil in G.I. Jane (1997) – who had a shaved head.
After the joke, Will Smith appeared to laugh, but things took a turn for the worse when he realized his wife took exception to the joke. He began to yell at Chris from his seat, telling him to ‘keep my wife’s name out your [bleeping] mouth’ before calmly walking up to the stage and slapping Chris across the mouth.
It has been nearly 11 months since the incident, and most people who will ever forgive Will Smith have already done so. It’s something Smith has taken notice of after taking some time to reflect on his actions – which he 100% owned up to. With the 95th Academy Awards less than a month away, he made light of it.
On Monday, he took to TikTok to joke about how his ‘slap heard ‘round the world’ overshadowed his very first Oscar win moments later – he won Best Actor for his role as Richard Williams in King Richard. He accepted the award and gave an emotional speech but was later banned from the Oscars for 10 years.
(Warning the below video contains some coarse language.)
In the video, he duets an influencer who is talking about how ‘you can pick any object, look at it, and ask it what it thinks of you’, and your mind will give you an answer from your intuition. She says you can do this with a pen or your car and, in return, it will ‘change your life’ and make it more ‘interesting and fun.’
While she’s saying this, Will Smith is nodding his head and eventually turns his head off camera as he brings his ‘Best Actor’ award into view. He’s about to do what she says and ask the award what it thinks of him, but then the video strategically ends. His hilarious gesture shows he still has a sense of humor.
The Comments Section Seemed to Favor Will Smith
The TikTok video has garnered nearly 1.2 million views, 82,000 likes, 4,000 comments, and 2,600 shares in less than 24 hours – which is what you would expect from a video by Will Smith – his TikToks garner anywhere from 500,000 views to 20+ million views. Surprisingly, the comments were rather positive.
“A win is a win,” said one user, while another commented, “this has got to be the hardest flex in 2023.” Others praised him for laughing at his own mishaps, and some joked that it was ‘still too soon.’ Believe it or not, there weren’t a lot of negative comments, as people seem to have forgiven him for his actions.
Some of the funniest comments were people guessing what the Oscar would’ve said if it could give a response. One user posted several zipper-mouth face emojis – hinting that the Oscar would keep its mouth shut – while another guessed it would say, “Why u do that, Will?” The comments are worth a read.
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The 95th Academy Awards will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 12, 2023. The event will feature films that were released last year and will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel – one would think he’ll joke about what happened. Unfortunately for Will Smith, he won’t be able to attend this year.
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