By now we’re willing to bet you never want to hear “Will Smith,” “Chris Rock,” “alopecia,” and “slap” in any combination ever again. On Sunday, at the first in-person Academy Awards since 2019, the former Fresh Prince got on stage and slapped comedian and presenter Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife’s hair. Profanities were exchanged, the world wide web went up like a roman candle, and just about the time everyone was getting a grip on what had happened, Smith was invited back to the stage to accept his best-actor Oscar for playing the role of Richard Williams in the Serena/Venus tennis biopic ‘King Richard.’ Not even Hollywood could have scripted it.
The ensuing groundswell was unprecedented, even in the post-viral world. It touched each and every corner of the globe, including the insular reaches of hockey, where a Climate Pledge Arena sound person queued up a familiar tune for some fisticuffs between the Kraken’s Jamie Oleksiak and the Golden Knights’ Keegan Kolesar on Wednesday night. Sound up.
As any self-respecting millennial will tell you, that’s the iconic theme to the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ the NBC sitcom responsible for sending Will Smith on his way to stardom (and, indirectly, onto the Dolby Theater stage on Sunday night). We’re sure you get the punchline, but if you don’t, it’s because they’re punching each other. Don’t overthink it.
Like we said from the jump, it’s high time society moved past this. The subsequent take-valanche—from comparing Smith’s behavior to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine to claiming Chris Rock could have literally been killed—sealed that deal by the lunch hour on Monday. That said, if this is the last we ever think or hear of SlapGate, then it’s a fitting, final send off.
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