Jimmy Kimmel says he would've handled the Will Smith slap differently
The late-night host focused his monologue on Monday night on the infamous Chris Rock slap, saying he would've run from the stage.
Jimmy Kimmel says he would’ve handled Will Smith’s slap very differently. On Monday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the late-night host praised the way Chris Rock reacted to the controversial moment on Sunday night at the Oscars when Smith struck the comedian live on stage.
“A lot of my friends have been texting me asking what I would have done if I had been on stage,” Kimmel said early on in his show. “I would have run is what I would have done. The second I saw Will Smith get up out of the seat, I’d have been halfway to the Wetzel’s Pretzels, enjoying the samples in front of the store.”
Kimmel dedicated his entire opening monologue to what immediately became arguably the wildest moment in Oscars history, superseding even the La La Land/Moonlight mix-up a few years back from the ceremony that Kimmel himself hosted. “Now I’m a little bummed because I’ve only now hosted the second craziest Oscars of all time,” Kimmel quipped on his show. “I only had like three years to enjoy that.”
While Kimmel empathized with Rock, he also expressed some tongue-in-cheek sympathy for Smith’s tricky position, noting that the actor initially appeared to laugh at the joke that set him off. “Obviously Chris Rock did not deserve to be slapped in the face for a joke. Will’s point of view is he was defending his wife, and that’s a tough position to be in because it’s damned if you do, Ted Cruz if you don’t,” Kimmel said, referencing the Texas senator whose wife was frequently the target of ridicule from Donald Trump.
The late-night host also offered a unique solution to officially put the entire fiasco to bed. “To me there’s only one more step to make this right,” Kimmel said, “and that’s the Comedy Central Roast of Will Smith hosted by Chris Rock.”
