It’s been a week since the iconic slap at the Oscars took place, but it looks like we may be far from moving on from the moment.
In the time since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, Chris Rock decided not to press charges, The Academy released a statement advising they don’t condone violence, Will apologized, The Academy debated expelling him, and finally, Will left The Academy of his own will.
There were other moments in between and many great memes from fans, but the slap took away a lot of attention from the Oscars and has stayed viral over the past week.
There was no slap to be seen at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, but there were a couple of jokes that alluded to the infamous moment a week before.
The jokes come early in the show from Questlove and host Trevor Noah. The awards ceremony went off without a hitch, but the subtle jabs at Will Smith and Chris Rock weren’t unnoticed.
Questlove gives subtle jab at Will Smith slapping Chris Rock
Questlove took the stage early on to announce one of the night’s biggest awards, Song of the Year. When he addressed the audience, he made a subtle jab toward Will’s actions the weekend before.
“Alright, I am going to present this award, and I trust that you people will stay 500 feet away from me,” he joked before continuing, “And you know, this is now a special moment for someone. And we’re going to make a memory for them tonight.”
His comment did not go unnoticed, and he received laughs from the audience for making the joke. However, Questlove has some personal stake in the events from the Oscars.
He won the Oscar for Outstanding Documentary Feature after Will slapped Chris, and the slap took away a lot of the attention from Questlove himself and other winners that night. Fortunately, Questlove won Best Music Film for Summer of Soul at the Grammy pre-show.
Questlove wasn’t the only star to comment about the slap, as host Trevor Noah also made a quip about it.
Trevor Noah makes joke about Will Smith’s statement to Chris Rock
After Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and returned to his seat, the actor wasn’t quite done.
Chris seemed to try to brush off the moment, saying, “Will Smith just smacked the s**t out of me,” but Will wasn’t done. From his seat, he yelled at the comedian, “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth,” to which Chris ended up saying, “I’m going to.”
Trevor knew he could use this moment while he hosted the GRAMMYs, and he subtly added it into his opening statement.
He said, “Don’t even think of this as an award show. It’s a concert where we are giving out awards, we will be listening to music, dancing, singing, keeping people’s names out of our mouths, and we are going to give people awards all throughout the night. So let’s get straight into it.”
While some people are ready to move on and don’t want to hear anything else about Will Smith and Chris Rock, it’s clear that the moment gave some people the comedic material they were looking for.