Will Smith Slaps Chris Rock

2022

Date: 27 March 2022 · Place: 94th Academy Awards, Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles · Figures: Will Smith, Best Actor winner that night · Chris Rock, presenter · Jada Pinkett Smith, target of the GI Jane joke · Tags: Awards, Live TV, The Slap 01. Keep My Wife's Name Chris Rock makes a GI Jane joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head, which she shaves due to alopecia. Will Smith walks onstage and slaps him. Smith returns to his seat and shouts, twice, to keep his wife's name out of Rock's mouth. ABC's US broadcast censors the audio. Australian and Japanese broadcasts do not. Forty minutes later Smith wins Best Actor for King Richard and delivers a tearful acceptance speech about protection. The Academy bans him from the ceremony for ten years on 8 April. 02. Reaction Image of the Year The freeze-frame of the slap, the wide shot of Smith mid-walk, and the close-up of Rock holding his cheek become the year's universal reaction set. TikTok edits within the hour. The cycle pulls in Tony Rock, Questlove holding the Best Documentary envelope, and the running joke that the producer Will Packer had the worst night of any Oscars producer in history. Sources • AP News, 'Will Smith slaps Chris Rock onstage at the Oscars' (27 March 2022) • The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, statement on Smith ban (8 April 2022) • Variety, 'Inside the Will Smith Slap' (28 March 2022)