CODA wins big, Will Smith hits back, and more unforgettable moments from the 2022 Oscars
Plus, Kenneth Branagh finally wins, Amy Schumer slays, and Beyoncé brings down the court, er, house
Film Features Oscars
The 2022 Oscars certainly didn’t pull any punches. On a night with no real surprises across the big races, the 94th edition of the Academy Awards still managed to deliver one of the biggest shockers in Hollywood history.
The show’s ultimate talking point—an onstage dustup between an angry Will Smith and a very surprised Chris Rock, which nearly broke the telecast and fractured the internet—was an Oscars moment unlike any other.
There were plenty of hits, of course, along with a few big misses. We’ve collected them all here, including memorable quotes, important firsts, and acceptance speeches that made recipients (and audiences) laugh and cry in equal measure. Meanwhile, Amy Schumer, Regina Hall, and Wanda Sykes reminded everyone why awards shows need hosts with a batch of killer one-liners. Click through to relive all the action—just don’t forget to duck.
77 Comments
I don’t think violence was a good response, but the joke was in very poor taste. Turning someone’s pain into a joke really isn’t funny. To be fair, Will didn’t punch Chris Rock or start beating him…just theatrically slapped him to make a point. A private conversation or some pointed tweets would have been a better way to handle it.
Yep, a lot of people said it didn’t look that hard and I think it was not meant to. It was showy on purpose. I think it was also less about Chris and more of Will telling the writers feeding the teleprompter to back the fuck off and find someone else to pick on. Don’t know the whole story and I doubt we ever will but its possible Jada is very sensitive about it or its possible Will was just an emotional mess. Who knows. It was not his best moment but its also not gonna take his career or anything. As I said elsewhere, the people who run and put on the Oscars are probably pissing themselves in excitement over it. You can’t manufacture this level of publicity.
And I’m betting it certainly won’t have done Rock’s career any harm.
Yep no one was harmed by this. I bet someone high up at the Oscars is calling both men this morning and thanking them for what they did and started to mend any fence that may have been damaged in order to get them to joke about it on the stage in 2023. Imagine getting them two host the thing together next year?
I’d say that it’s close to a certainty.
“Pain”? She rocks the bald look. He only ran up when he saw her death stare. Stop killing jokes, and let’s save the word “pain” for real disabilities.
Damn should kanye hit people for making fun of his mental health??
I’ve heard jokes in poor taste. And I’ve heard Chris Rock go hard. Trust me, that was pretty soft, all things considered. But I’ll just say a lot of people laughed, so it stands to reason there are probably many who may not have known about Jada’s condition. All Will Smith needed to do was shed light on this in his acceptance speech, and it would have squashed the whole thing, and retroactively make Chris Rock look like a jerk, which is more effective than making him look like a victim.
How the hell was that in poor taste? It’s not like she hasn’t been on a dozen shows talking about her hair loss, and how she decided to just shave it all off. And all Rock said was that she was rocking the look, and he couldn’t wait to see her in GI Jane 2. As he pointed out when he was surprised to see Jada’s reaction, it was a GI Jane joke! He complimented how she looked, and then made the movie reference.It was about the softest of softball “jokes” that could have been made. And you can see that even Will was laughing until he saw Jada’s face.
A shaking head and an angry look in his direction would have taken care of that, instead of physical violence on live TV.
Now it all makes sense. This has been building. Which makes you think, didn’t anyone know their bad history? They invited Chris Rock to what many knew would be Will Smith’s big night?
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Sunday night wasn’t the first time Chris Rock had joked about Jada Pinkett Smith, but it may have been his last.
Her husband, Will Smith, stormed on stage at the 94th Academy Awards after Rock joked “Jada I love you, ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it” and hit Rock in the face.
Actress Demi Moore famously shaved her head for her role in the film “G.I. Jane” and Pinkett Smith has a close haircut because she suffers from alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss.
In 2016, Rock hosted the Oscars and joked about Pinkett Smith and her husband boycotting over #OscarsSoWhite, the online movement which began as a way to address the lack of diversity at the Academy Awards.
Rock declared that the Smiths, as well as Black director Spike Lee “went mad” over the issue as there were no Black acting nominees that year.
“Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties,” Rock said during his opening monologue. “I wasn’t invited.”
Rock went on to joke that he understood Pinkett Smith’s anger.
“Jada’s mad her man Will was not nominated for ‘Concussion.’” Rock said in reference to the 2015 football film Will Smith starred in. “I get it. It’s not fair that Will was this good and didn’t get nominated. It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for [the 1999 film] ‘Wild Wild West.’”
Pinkett Smith commented on the jokes days later when asked about them by paparazzi.
“Hey look, it comes with the territory, we gotta keep it moving,” she said. “We got a lot of stuff we gotta handle, a lot of stuff going on in our world right now. We gotta keep it moving.”
E! reported that Smith, who was filming “Collateral Beauty” in New York City at the time, simply smiled and flashed a peace sign when asked.
Smith and Rock’s relationship goes back to the 1990s. Rock guest starred on Smith’s hit series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” where he played a character named Maurice and Maurice’s sister Jasmine.
In 2018 Smith posted a birthday tribute on his verified Instagram account to his ex-wife Sheree Zampino, who is the mother of his adult son Trey.
“Happy Bday, @shereezampino. #BestBabyMamaEver! 🙂 I Love You, Ree-Ree,” the caption read.
Rock left a comment saying, “Wow. You have a very understanding wife,” according to E! to which Zampino responded, “Don’t hate.”
On Sunday night, Smith apologized to his fellow nominees and the Academy while accepting his best actor award for “King Richard.”
The Academy tweeted that it “does not condone violence of any form.”
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/entertainment/chris-rock-will-smith-history/index.html
Here’s the ultra high quality uncensored version without the Japanese translation.
Sad that we’re spending more time picking sides between Will Smith and Chris Rock, rather than talking about Lady Gaga’s classy professionalism.
She really was a pro and helped Liza keep her dignity. I guess working with Tony Bennett has given her a lot of practice at handling someone like that in front of a crowd.
She was amazing. I’ve never paid Gaga much mind, but I get what people see in her.
Exactly. May not care what she does in front of a mic but man, what a class act
But why are we trotting out a clearly confused and disoriented Minnelli in the first place?
Lada Gaga was put in that position by someone making the unfortunate decision that the concept was a remotely good idea. “I got you” was only necessary due to the trainwreck being contrived in the first place.Love you forever, Lucille 2.
If it helps, I care very little about both. In fact, I care so little I’m taking the time to comment about it!
speaking of professionalism, also glad that one of my top actress crushes, Jessica Chastain, finally won an Oscar that she should have won 10 years ago for Zero Dark Thirty.
Amy Shumer is one of the least funny people working in hollywood today.Also fuck your slideshow.
The Oscars Baffling Everyone By Celebrating The Snyder Cut :: The AV Club putting everything into slideshow formatTwo institutions killing themselves with no one to blame but themselves
Every picture of Amy Schumer could be captioned “Mmm, is that cheesecake?”
Ha ha ha! Women be eating!
Unfortunately, it’s Amy Schumer.
*sing*
Does whatever a Schumer can!
You know sometimes I forget how much you suck.
To be fair, TKCS was just testing the recognitionsSignal, which we invented in case of a real emergency. It works.
That sounds like a personal problem.
Huh, I generally find your comments amusing.
Everything about the “We don’t Talk About Bruno” performance SCREAMED “opening number.” I wonder if they switched with the Beyonce song at the last minute.
Just a note: Kodi Smit-McPhee won the Globe, not Kotsur.
Let’s not lose sight that they gave the stage to Kelly Slater, and outapoken anti vaxx jerk who has 0 film experience and 0 work with the Bond franchise to give honors to 60 years of Bond.I guess they couldn’t get all the living Bond actors but jfc why an anti vaxxer? Mike Myers or even adele would have made more sense.
I couldn’t figure out why those three were even announced as presenters, but assumed it probably had to do with “King Richard,” since… you know, sports? But I was very wrong.
Precisely. Esp after they “forgot” to invite Rachel Zegler who is the star of one of the best pic nominees.F those people.
But he’s one hell of a surfer.
I was mystified too. One of them said something about “being the best in their respective fields” or something which I guess is what they went with to tie them in? I have to wonder if they brought these guys in for a different segment that got scrapped or something, because it just doesn’t make sense. COVID-era travel restrictions aside, how hard would it have been to get the surviving Bonds to show up for this? You’re trying to tell me that, in 2022, Timothy Dalton, George Lazenby, and Pierce Brosnan have better things to do than go to the biggest Hollywood party of the year in exchange for like 2 minutes of work? Or an even better idea: Judi Fucking Dench! She’s already there!!! AFAIK she’s been in more Bond films than any other living actor.
This^ I’m guessing the oscar producers thought the idea of all bonds on stage wouldn’t bring in the “youths” but neither do these guys.
Is it just me, or was whatever Beyonce was planning with that staging and costuming design completely forgetting that monotone colours are going to wash out detail on any visual presentation? I mean don’t get me wrong when my wife said that to me I responded “you tell her, middle aged white lady”. But it really didn’t work well.
Maybe you need to adjust the settings on your TV, because it looked fantastic.
Can someone green screen the slap onto that performance.
Oh, good……a slideshow.
“Disney oddly opted not to push the megahit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” for Best Original Song”It wasn’t odd at all, and has been explained by the filmmakers. They had to choose the song to put up for nomination before they knew Bruno was a huge hit, and Miranda chose Dos Orugitas because it was the “heart” of the film, and is the one that, to him, told what the film was really about. It’s a beautiful song.And I love We Don’t Talk About Bruno, but man, what an awful performance. They hyped up the fact that this was “the first live performance of We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and they didn’t even do the song everyone know! Random ass performance by Megan The Stallion (and I like her! but that’s not the song) and they changed the words all up. As you said it’s already a megahit—do it the way that made it a megahit.
Everything about that production made me think it was supposed to be the opening number and got bumped for Beyonce. You don’t do the “change the lyrics of a popular song to ‘Let’s Celebrate the Oscars’” thing halfway through the show.
I bet most of the Oscar voters had no idea who this Stallion woman is. What movie was she in?
“Hm, Stallion… Seabiscuit?”
I love the idea of “hey, you know how we can get younger people interested in watching the Oscars? We should promote the hell out of the very first live performance of a popular song!”And then in same meeting: ”We really should add a rap about self-promotion. And take away 4/5 of the entire lyrics of the song.”
Yeah, I have no idea why that was the way they did the song. I like Megan Thee Stallion, but the random Oscars-themed rap was weird and off-putting in the middle of a really popular song that I actually like the (original) lyrics to.
Is the way I feel about Billie Eilish in 2022 the same as the way old people felt about The Beatles in 1964?
Probably, but presumably you also remember how obnoxious those people were and you could choose to not be like that.
I don’t remember, having not been alive then, but I generally keep my musical opinions to myself unless it’s pertinent…or unless devil-worshipping “rock stars” are trying to corrupt our innocent youth with their Satanic lyrics and promiscuous lifestyles. Obviously.
Old people liked The Beatles, don’t let anyone fool you.
Doubtful, Eillish may be popular, but she’s not bringing with her a giant revolution to the whole music scene like The Beatles did.
The Beatles made interesting music
“This year the Academy hired three women to host, because it’s cheaper than hiring one man.”You consider this witty? Haven’t we all heard this same joke a million times by this point? If anything this just further shines a light on how unoriginal Shumer’s humor has always been.
“I hope the Academy invites me back.” fuck you, I hope this is the last time we ever see a picture of him or his irritating family near an Oscars stage. With all grace and love of course.
Well, he’s automatically invited to present next year’s Best Actress Oscar.
well, I think the “automatic” part applies for people who didn’t assault someone live on stage the year before. I think they could find an actor like Anthony Hopkins to come back and present an award next year in his stead. (That reminds me, also strip Smith of his Academy membership.)
I think other people have pointed out that Roman Polanski, Harvey Weinstein and Woody Allen haven’t returned their Oscars, so Smith is safe with the Academy.
all 3 of them are much worse by orders of magnitude than what Will Smith did BUT what they did didn’t “go viral” so if anything they’re all probably like “glad to be off of the radar for a little bit.” I’d be OK with him keeping his Oscar because he earned it before what he did to Chris Rock; a lifetime ban of not being able to mug on the red carpet would definitely sting him.
At least not without some serious counseling and reparations.
he’s a 53 year old movie star, his narcissism is probably off the charts and deep down I would bet he doesn’t think he did anything wrong, so I don’t see what good counseling would do (or reparations, but I’m not sure what that means; pay Chris Rock for something that apparently is boosting ticket sales of his comedy tour?). If anything is going to penetrate his ego and make him realize the error of his ways, it’s the mostly negative backlash to this; few actors are more brand-conscious than Will Smith.
I mean, narcissism is almost a necessity to be a massive movie star in this day and age. I also don’t believe that he believes he didn’t do anything wrong. Just the fact that he mentioned the ordeal in his acceptance speech means he likely is aware of the repurcusions. Will Smith isn’t some degenerate movie star or performer, it’s Will Smith, maybe the most famous black actor in the world. He has done countless good things for black people and the world in general, and is widely considered to be a pretty genuine and well meaning guy. This is exactly what counseling is for. If we just handwave away anybody that does something like this and say they are beyond help, then that means we’re tacitly expressing that nothing we do matters and it’s going to happen regardless, and that’s just ridiculous. I am certainly not advocating for anything Smith did; it was incredibly inappropriate, beyond unprofessional and worthy of condemnation in every sense of the word. When I say reparations, I don’t mean by literally paying Rock for anything. Reparations simply means making amends and attempting to pay for a wrongdoing or a crime – whether that’s with cash (as most people tend to think that’s strictly what reparations means), good-will gestures or even a simple conversation and apology.
they should have Amy Schumer back based solely on the strength of that Golden Globes burn. I felt that in Maryland.
did you guys miss a slide showing Sean Penn smelting his Oscars? I bet that was epic LOL
So we’re just going to ignore Agnes Moorehead dumping her drink n Van Johnson’s lap?
Chris is gonna have to update this bit—
Honestly it was Chapelle that was my first thought.
ANOTHER FUCKING SLIDE SHOW!?! AV— YOU ARE OUTDATED INTERNET whores!!! Slide shows and pagination went the way of the dinosaur. Catch the fuck UP.
I’m sorry but Amy Schumer’s bit calling Kirsten Dunst a seat filler was fucked up, though sadly not surprising given her reputation for being awful to women in the industry.
Dunst should have been given more attention. All people talk about regarding The Power of The Dog is Benedict, and she wasn’t even in No Way Home.
It wasn’t real, dude chill out.
That In Memoriam was weird.By the way, did Sean Penn smelt his Oscars?
Maybe they can cut the musical/dance numbers featuring non-actors and non-nominees and reinstate the (real) award categories that were bumped to (yeah, right) make the broadcast shorter.
Troy did not win the Golden Globe. Kodi Smit-McPhee did for Power of the Dog.
Watched CODA last night, it was good.