It’s been a year, but the power of “The Slap” lives on.
At last year’s Oscars, Will Smith suddenly stormed the stage and smacked comedian Chris Rock, who had made an off-color joke about Smith’s wife, the actor Jada Pinkett Smith.
It was, of course, the talk of the town — and the world — in the days following that ceremony, and it returned to dominate the one-liners on Sunday at this year’s Academy Awards.
Photo: AFP
“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,” vowed host Jimmy Kimmel, referring to a classic line from one of Smith’s hit songs. The hypothetical perpetrator would have to get past a bevy of superheroes, Kimmel joked, including the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) and “the Fabel...man” (Steven Spielberg).
“There will be no nonsense tonight. We have no time for shenanigans.”
Smith still took home the award for best actor that night, for his starring role in King Richard, but has been banned from attending the Oscars for a decade as the result of his actions.
“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,” Kimmel quipped.
“Five Irish actors are nominated tonight -- which means the odds of another fight on stage just went way up,” the late-night funnyman said.
But a few minutes later, he got serious: “We want you to have fun, we want you to feel safe and most important, we want me to feel safe.”
Later on, he unleashed another zinger.
“The next movie is documentary feature, which is where we had that little skirmish last year,” Kimmel said.
“Hopefully this time, it goes off without a hitch. Or at least without Hitch,” he said, referring to a Smith film.
And then midway through the event, he launched: “This point in the show kind of makes you miss the slapping a little, right?”
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