Last night, Will Smith smacked the hell out of Chris Rock on stage at 94th Academy Awards, and no it was not scripted.
Rock, who was the host of this year's Oscars, made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith looking like "G.I. Jane" because of her bald head. In reaction shots of the crowd, Smith is seen laughing at first, though Jada looks pretty unamused. The camera cuts back to Rock and seconds later, Smith marches straight up to the host and open-hand smacks him right across the face. Completely stunned, Rock paused to process what happened for a moment and then says, "that was the greatest night in the history of television." He could be right, as the entire internet cannot stop talking about the incident on every social media platform.
This was Chris Rock's joke leading up to the slap heard around the world. Perhaps it took a moment for Smith to process the punchline, because the last shot of him before he marches on stage shows Smith chuckling next to a visibly displeased Jada Pinkett Smith.
On American television, the audio was cut soon after Smith slapped Rock on stage. However, in other parts of the world, audiences were able watch the aftermath with uncensored audio. In a Japanese news clip, Smith can be heard yelling, “keep my wife's name out your f*cking mouth!”
Naturally, the moment completely broke the internet, and within minutes people were memeing their reactions all over Twitter.
Many used famous audience reaction photos from another legendary Oscars moment to joke about last night's shocking incident.
The spotlight on Smith didn't end with the slap. Moments after the altercation, Smith won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in King Richard. In an emotional acceptance speech, Smith apologized to the academy and said “love will make you do crazy things.”
Smith's son Jaden chimed in about the incident, simply tweeting, “And That's How We Do It.”