The whole world was stunned when Will Smith went up the Oscars 2022 stage on Monday and smacked presenter Chris Rock for a joke on his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Then, Smith went on to win the Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role at the ceremony. He apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees in a tearful acceptance speech and rendered an apology to Rock today, an actor and comedian, in an Instagram post.
Twitter is overflowing with reactions and memes since the episode aired and found its way on social media and dairy giant Amul too weighed in on the issue with their popular doodle.
“Amul Topical: Actor strikes MC at Oscars!” the company tweeted with a doodle of Smith slapping Rock. The graphic said: “Chris rocked by slap” and “Snack. Don’t smack”.
See the doodle here:
#Amul Topical: Actor strikes MC at Oscars! pic.twitter.com/Hg95TSlXoO— Amul.coop (@Amul_Coop) March 28, 2022
Chris Rock had joked about Jada Pinkett Smith’s closely cropped hair saying, "Can’t wait to see you in GI Jane 2" – the first part of the movie had actor Demi Moore, essaying the titular role, shave her head as part of her Navy Seal training. The joke didn’t go down well as Pinkett Smith has openly spoken about her struggle with alopecia areata that has caused extreme hair loss. She shaved her head last year.
Will Smith, who appeared to laugh at the joke at first, then stormed to the stage and slapped Rock and walked back to his seat. He shouted, “Keep my wife’s name off your f***ing mouth” twice before Rock said, “I am going to” and proceeded to move on with the show.
The episode prompted the Academy to issue a statement that they are looking into the matter and they do not condone violence “of any form”.
Smith apologized today for his stunt in an Instagram statement but missed apologizing to Rock on Monday during his acceptance speech at the Oscars.
