Jimmy Kimmel Roasts Will Smith Slap in Oscars Opening Monologue | “We Want ‘Me’ to Feel Safe”

As the 2023 Academy Awards concluded, none of us could deny that the whole ceremony was rather uneventful compared to last year’s ceremony. The event was loaded with jokes as host Jimmy Kimmel combed through a bunch of actors and famous personalities from the industries, including bringing up an "emotional support donkey" on stage at one point. But with the host taking control of the Oscar stage for the third time, most people in the audience predicted the resurfacing of a certain joke. Kimmel kicked off the event by taking a dig at the infamous Will Smith and Chris Rock incident and mercilessly roasted Smith. "Five Irish actors are nominated tonight, which means the chances of a fight just went way up," Kimmel humored while hosting, per Variety. He then quickly proceeded to remind everyone of Smith delivering that one slap to Rock which is still treated as meme material on the internet.

"We want you to have fun, feel safe, and most importantly, we want 'me' to feel safe,” Kimmel told the audience. "So, we have strict policies in place. If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point during the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute long speech. But seriously, the academy has a crisis team in place. If anything unpredictable or violent happens during the show, sit there and do absolutely nothing. Maybe even give the assailant a hug," he added. 

Kimmel shouted out fighters like Michael B. Jordan and Michelle Yeoh in the audience and informed everyone that "getting mad at a joke and deciding to get jiggy with it won’t be easy." We bet the audience would have wanted to see a spectacle of Jordan and Yeoh defending Kimmel from assailants if needed. "At this point in the show, it kind of makes you miss the slapping a little bit, right?" Kimmel quipped once again towards the end of the two-hour-long prestigious event.

However, Kimmel didn't limit his humorous digs in the opening monologue to the slapping incident. He even went up to Nobel Prize-winning activist Malala Yousafzai to ask her a corny question. "As the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history, I was wondering, do you think Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine?" Kimmel questioned Yousafzai, to which she replied that she only talks about peace.

In between all the lighthearted moments, we witnessed Everything Everywhere All At Once dominating the 95th Academy Awards with a total of 7 wins, including Michelle Yeoh winning Best Actress and the film bagging the Best Picture trophy. The audience at the Dolby Theater also witnessed a colorful and energetic live performance of Naatu Naatu by singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava and the unsuspecting donkey which was escorted on stage by Kimmel.

The 2023 Oscar didn’t witness any major mess or mixup but Kimmel has not been unfamiliar with Oscar controversies. He was in the midst of handling a tricky situation at the 2017 Oscar when La La Land was announced as the winner of Best Picture instead of Moonlight. This time around, the seasoned talk show host was able to navigate the entire ceremony with ease but he did get hilariously booted offstage mid-speech at one point by a bunch of dancers vibing to RRR's popular track Naatu Naatu. Rest assured, we are relieved that it was all part of the script.