March 27, 2022 marked the 94th edition of the Academy Awards. But whether you’ve watched the Oscars or not on Sunday, there was at least one event that came out of the show that you’ve surely heard of: Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a clip capturing the moment:
A lot of people were shocked and confused and thought that the moment was probably staged until soon after when Will Smith apologized for his behavior during his acceptance speech for winning Best Actor for his role in “King Richard”:
As you can imagine, the whole Internet exploded with memes about the situation, and we couldn’t help but gather the funniest ones in a collection that you can easily access when you want a good laugh.
Best Memes of Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars:
Let’s begin with some about how nobody cared about the Oscars until Will Smith slapped Chris Rock:
As you can see in the first video, Will initially laughed at the joke Chris made at the expense of his wife, Jada, but then, when he saw his wife’s face, the monkey gene requiring all males to protect their females must have been activated.
To be fair, Jada Pinkett Smith is battling alopecia, which prompted her to shave her head, so when Chris made a joke about her starring in G.I. Jane, a movie where Demi Moore has a shaved head, it was not well received since it’s a touchy subject for her. Still, a joke is a joke, and of course, people on the Internet honored Chris Rock’s joke with G.I. Jane memes.
Will and Jada have a pretty tumultuous relationship and have been open about some of their struggles, including Jada having had an “entanglement”, as she called it, with rapper August Alsina. This of course led to jokes and memes about Will being cheated on by his wife and being able to accept her infidelity, but not a joke at her expense:
We know Will couldn’t take the joke, but Jada didn’t either. Well… it’s “hair loss” :))
Then there were of course memes on the slap itself, portraying Will and Chris as different things, all of them hilarious. I especially liked the one playing on Dean Martin’s lyrics to “That’s Amore”, and the one with paper beats Rock:
As expected, like with all memes about actors, there was also a play on Will’s movies and movie posters, and other movies as well:
If you’ve watched the TV show “How I Met Your Mother” and you know about the epic slap bet between Barney and Marshall, here’s one for you:
Then there are a few memes about games, which probably have some gamers behind them:
Some memes talk about how Chris Rock wasn’t relevant anymore, but Will Smith solved that problem for him:
Unfortunately, Will Smith dug his hole by doing this:
And then there was this meme going around showing everyone’s reactions to the slap, but it has since been proven that the collage is actually from the 2017 Oscars, when “La La Land” was first announced as the winner for Best Picture, when in fact it was “Moonlight” that won.
Then there was this one with Nicole Kidman, which was from this year’s Oscars, but Nicole’s reaction isn’t to the slap, but to seeing Jessica Chastain across the room:
And there are a few memes that I couldn’t put in a category, but I wanted to include them anyway because they’re funny:
I hope you’ve enjoyed this collection of memes making fun of Will Smith’s slap at the Oscars. Which one was your favorite? If you want to stay on top of viral trends like this and ensure your brand can engage with the latest online conversations, consider using social media monitoring tools. These tools help track popular content, allowing you to react quickly to trending topics and be part of the conversation as it happens.