Jimmy Kimmel’s fresh take on Will Smith slapgate: ‘Spider-Man, Aquaman, Catwoman, nobody helped Chris Rock’

Will Smith smacking Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards on Sunday night for making a joke at the expense of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith continues to be the highlight of the award show. The incident was so shocking and unexpected that many viewers initially believed that it was part of an act. It turns out, that Jimmy Kimmel who has previously served as a host at the Academy Awards also suspected the slap to be staged. Also Read| Academy ‘seriously discussed’ asking Will Smith to leave Oscars event after he hit Chris Rock: report

Jimmy shared his take on the incident on Monday night’s episode of his talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! He opened the show by playing the viral video of Will smacking Chris on the Oscars stage, which ended with Chris saying “wow” after Will slapped him. Jimmy said, “Wow indeed, the old Hitch (Will’s movie) slap. It’s now a part of our lives forever. We will never stop talking about this.”

Jimmy further joked, “It was so shocking. The only thing I can really compare it to is when Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield’s ear. Even Kanye (West) was like, ‘You went on stage and did what at an awards show?'” adding that he and his wife initially thought it was a staged act and thought Will and Chris did a really good job. The talk show host also pointed out that the part he finds confusing about the incident is that Will Smith could be seen laughing at Chris’ joke at first. He said, “And the weirdest part, was that initially Will Smith laughed at that joke. But then he looked over and noticed that Jada was not amused and he was like, ‘uh oh, I gotta do something,’ and boy did he do something.”

Jimmy also said that he believes Chris Rock handled the situation very well. After getting slapped, Chris had said, “wow, Will Smith just smacked the s**t out of me.” When Will further angrily told him to not talk about Jada, Chris said, “Wow dude, It was a GI Jane joke. I am going to, (not talk about Jada) okay?”

Jimmy said about Chris’s reaction, “Chris Rock handled it about as well as you could possibly handle being slapped on stage at the Oscars. He didn’t even flinch… I would’ve been crying so hard…And then, he went right into introducing the best documentary, as if he hadn’t just been slapped by the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (Will Smith’s show).” He further joked, “By the way, no one did anything. Nobody lifted a finger. Spider-Man was there. Aquaman was there. Catwoman, all sitting on their hands. Nobody helped Chris Rock.” He was talking about Andrew Garfield, Jason Momoa and 

Jimmy proceeded to give the background of the whole incident, including an earlier joke Chris had made at Oscars about Jada, and her battle with alopecia before he said that there is a reason the smacking has left him upset. “I’m a little bummed because I’ve only hosted the second craziest Oscars of all time,” he said, referring to the incident at the 2017 Oscars in which La La Land was mistakenly announced as the best picture winner over Moonlight. He also said that he would have run if he was in Chris’s situation and saw Will coming at him.