During his monologue, host Jerrod Carmichael claims that he's sick of speaking about the incident, which took place in the 2022 Oscars on March 27, but the comedy show suggests he works it into his set in his episode.
- Apr 4, 2022
AceShowbiz - "Saturday Night Live" addressed Will Smith and Chris Rock's Oscars slap in the Saturday, April 2 episode. Hosted by Jerrod Carmichael, the episode saw the cast members and the host parodying the most viral moment at the March 27 event numerous times.
During his monologue, the "Rothanial" comedian addressed the situation without naming anyone. "I've got a question - do you want to talk about it? Aren't you sick of talking about it? Isn't it kind of crazy? It feels like I've been talking about it for so long," Jerrod said. "Can you believe it happened six days [ago]? … Doesn't it feel like it happened years ago? Like, doesn't it feel like it happened when we were all in high school?"
Jerrod claimed he was sick of speaking about the incident, but the show suggested he worked it into his set in his episode. "Then, Lorne [Michaels] came into my dressing room. He was like, 'I think you need to talk about it. The nation needs to heal,' " Jerrod, who came out as gay during his HBO special this month, quipped. "I said, 'The nation needs to what? And you want me to do that? The nation don't even know me. The nation has no clue who I am.' "
Later in one of the skits, Jerrod appeared as a seat filler at the 2022 Oscars. The standup comedian, who made his "SNL" debut that night, was later seen conversing with Chris Redd's Will. Jerrod's character told him that he was such a huge fan and even called Chris' Will a hero for him. When he asked Chris' Will for a selfie, the latter excused himself for a minute to get onstage and ultimately slapped Chris Rock for joking about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head.
Things quickly took a turn post-slap. Frightened after witnessing the slap, Jerrod's character changed his mind about wanting to get a selfie with the actor. "No, that's OK, nah, I deleted my phone," he said.
Colin Jost also touched on the matter during "Weekend Update" segment as he drew parallels to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "Intelligence officials are saying that Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing in Ukraine," he said. "Which is kind of like Will Smith's agent telling him, 'You crushed it at the Oscars!' "
Colin added that the "King Richard" star's actions were "disgraceful" and set "a terrible precedent for having to defend your wife at awards shows."
