Jimmy Kimmel talked about the big issue at the 2023 Oscars but didn’t say Will Smith’s name. During his opening monologue, the three-time host made several jokes about Will Smith hitting Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. He also said that anyone who stirs up vi*olence at this year’s ceremony “shall be awarded the Oscar for Best Actor and be allowed to give a 19-minute speech.”
-Kimmel started the show by swooping in on a parachute, making it look like he had just jumped out of a fighter plane over the Dolby Theatre, like in the movie Top Gun: Maverick. Halfway through his speech, Kimmel made his first reference to SlapGate when joking about the nominations for the Banshees of Inisherin cast. “Five Irish actors are nominated today, which means the chances of another battle on stage have just skyrocketed,” he remarked.
Then he created the guidelines for the event in case someone “wants to go on stage and get jiggy with it,” another covert jab at Smith and his song “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” from 1997!
-“The Academy has a crisis team in place,” he stated. “If something surprising or vi*olent happens during the ceremony, simply do what you did last year: nothing. Give the assailant a hug if possible.”
-Kimmel then proceeded to name a slew of superheroes and tough people who would have to go through it in order to attack him, including Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield), Fabelman (The Fabelmans director Steven Spielberg), and Guillermo — both his talk show sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez and Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro..
-Kimmel made another joke about Smith when he introduced Questlove, who had just won Best Documentary Feature and was now giving out the same award with Riz Ahmed.
”We had that skirmish last year at Documentary Feature. “Let’s hope Documentary Feature goes off without a hitch, or at the very least without Hitch,” he remarked, alluding to Smith’s 2005 feature!
-Kimmel hosted the Oscars in 2017 and 2018, so this isn’t the first time he’s given a harsh speech. It’s also not his first time dealing with an embarrassing Oscars issue, as he had to end the 2017 program due to the iconic La La Land Best Picture snafu!!
