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It was expected that Saturday Night Live would tackle the Oscars slap between Will Smith and Chris Rock, and they did — but from an audience’s point of view.
In the sketch, a seat-filler (Jerrod Carmichael) positioned near Smith (Chris Redd) tells the actor how big of a fan he is and asks for a selfie before the onstage incident. But after the slap, the seat-filler’s excitement dissipates and he tries to distance himself from Smith, who is pretending everything is normal.
“So, where are you from?” Redd’s Smith asks Carmichael before shouting, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!” to an off-camera Rock.
When Smith reminds the seat-filler about the selfie, Carmichael declines saying, “I deleted my phone.”
Not long after, another seat-filler (Kyle Mooney) returns, wondering what he’d missed. While Mooney scrolls through his phone, Smith introduces himself and asks the young man’s name. But Mooney, after scrolling online and seeing what had happened onstage, stutters, “They didn’t give me one.”
By the end of the sketch, a happy-go-lucky Smith is dancing to his 1997 hit “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” which he did in reality at the Vanity Fair Oscars party after taking home the Best Actor win for his leading role in King Richard.
On SNL this week, “the slap” was a central topic, featured in the show’s cold open,Carmichael’s opening monologue, and Weekend Update.
