Will Smith’s Oscars slap was perfect fodder for this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live.
The show’s skit on the incident starred Chris Redd as Will Smith and comedian Jerrod Carmichael as a seat filler at the ceremony. The seat filler is at first ecstatic to meet his idol, and while they are chatting, someone can be heard imitating Chris Rock’s G.I. Jane joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith in the background. Smith momentarily gets up from his seat and the slap happens out of the shot; and when he returns, the seat filler is no longer excited about his encounter with Smith.
The skit also makes fun of Pinkett-Smith’s Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk, teases some lines from the actor’s acceptance speech for best actor, for his performance in King Richard—and makes fun of Smith for dancing to his own hit songs, like “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.”
Carmichael was this week’s host. The 34-year-old comedian opened the show with the requisite monologue. “I’m not going to talk about it,” he said, alluding to the Oscars controversy. “I’ma be clear up top. I’ve talked about it enough. Kept talking about it. Kept thinking about it. I don’t wanna talk about it and you can’t make me talk about it.”
He continued, “Can you believe it’s been six days? Six days. This happened a week ago. Doesn’t this feel like it happened years ago?”