Well, it was bound to happen at some point. Grammys 2022 host and comedian Trevor Noah joked about Will Smith and Chris Rock's physical altercation at last weekend's Academy Awards — colloquially known as “The Slap” — in his opener for the 64th Grammy Awards.
“Don’t even think of this as an award show,” Trevor Noah started his joke. “It’s a concert where we are giving out awards, we will be listening to music, dancing, sing, keeping people’s names out of our mouths and we are going to give people awards all throughout the night. So let’s get straight into it.”
At the Oscars 2022 ceremony, award presenter and comedian Chris Rock made a joke about Will Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith's bald head, which led to Will Smith storming the stage and slapping Rock across the face. Pinkett Smith has been public about her struggles with alopecia, and the joke touched a sensitive spot for the couple. After the slap, Smith yelled to Rock: “Keep my wife's name out your f***ing mouth.”
Musician Questlove, who presented the award for Song of the Year at this year's Grammy Awards, also joked about the slap.
“All right, I am going to present this award and I trust that you people will stay 500 feet away from me," Questlove said. (Questlove ultimately won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, the award Rock was presenting during the altercation.)
The Slap has sent ripples throughout Hollywood, with multiple celebrities speaking out and sharing their opinions about the divisive incident, including Zoë Kravitz, Amy Schumer, and film producer Judd Apatow.
There were a total of three jokes made about the biggest moment in recent awards show history at the 2022 Grammy Awards, and one of them happened before the main event even began.
During the Grammy Premiere Ceremony, hosted by actor and television host LeVar Burton, Burton and comedian Nate Bargatze did a short bit about The Slap before presenting one of the night's awards.
"I want to warn you all that our next presenter is a comedian, if you know what I mean,” said Burton before introducing Bargatze. “So, I need to caution everybody, remain in your seats and keep your hands to yourself.” Bargatze then walked onstage wearing a helmet.
“They said comedians have to wear these now at awards shows during the joke part," Bargatze said to laughter from the audience. According to Vulture, Bargatze took the helmet off soon after.
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