Jimmy Kimmel’s Will Smith slap joke from Oscars 2023 monologue hits hard

You can take the slap out of the Oscars (or Will Smith out of the Academy), but you can’t take the slap Jokes out of the Oscars, even — maybe Specially — at the 2023 Oscars.

Jimmy Kimmel began the program with a monologue, which included a joke about the 2022 Oscars slap incident. “Five Irish actors are nominated tonight, which means the odds of another fight on stage just went way up.”

As you might remember, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at last year’s Academy Awards after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s hair loss. Smith was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor and delivered a moving acceptance speech. Smith apologized for the accident over several more days, but Rock remained quiet. The Academy said they would review Smith’s membership, but Smith ultimately resigned. Smith was still making funny TikToks. Rock also released a special comedy that addressed the matter a year later.

Smith will also be barred for 10 years from Academy events following the incident, so he won’t present the Best Actor Oscar.

On the red carpet before the show, Janet Yang, president of the Film Academy, said that with the response last year the Academy’s response “was inadequate,” and that she’s “so excited” to be moving on with the show, concluding with: “we’re prepared.”