Oscars 2022: Will Smith Smacks Chris Rock in the Face Onstage After Joke about Jada Pinkett Smith

While the Oscars are known to be an elite event celebrating achievements in cinema over the past year, nobody was ready for how awkward it was going to be when Chris Rock went on stage.

Videos are going around online of Chris Rock getting smacked in the face by Will Smith after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith onstage.  Though a lot of people thought that it was a joke, Smith returned to his seat yelling ‘Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth,’ repeatedly at Rock.

MAYHEM BETWEEN CHRIS ROCK AND WILL SMITH AT THE #Oscars pic.twitter.com/265hGbsEDg

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 28, 2022

While the clip going around is censored, there were some places that were able to hear everything that Smith was saying without the sound cut.

VIA JAPANESE TELEVISION: The uncensored exchange between Will Smith and Chris Rock pic.twitter.com/j0Z184ZyXa

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) March 28, 2022

According to Variety, Smith’s publicist Meredith O. Sullivan had to keep coming back to Smith during the commercial breaks, and even Denzel Washington came up to him to give him a pep talk.

What makes it even more awkward is that Smith actually won the Best Actor Oscar for King Richard, and he had to come on stage again for his acceptance speech. Smith had to apologize to the academy, and revealed that Washington told him, “At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.”

As far as Oscar moments go, that had to be one of the craziest; probably topping the moment in the Oscars 2017 when they announced the wrong film for Best Picture.  It was certainly a low point for Smith, and I’m sure people are going to be talking about this for the rest of the week.