Infamous Smith slap the butt of all jokes at Oscars 2023

At the 95th Academy Awards held Sunday, host Jimmy Kimmel was guaranteed to reference The Slap in his monologue — he needed a little over seven minutes (about 10 1/2 minutes into the telecast) before he made his first veiled reference to Will Smith's infamous slapping of Chris Rock last year.

“We have nominees from every corner of Dublin,” Kimmel said. “Five Irish actors are nominated tonight, which means the odds of another fight on stage just went way up.”

Less than three minutes later, he was a little more direct: “We want you to have fun, we want you to feel safe, and most importantly, we want me to feel safe,” Kimmel said. “So we have strict policies in place. If anyone in this theatre commits an act of violence at any point in this show, you will be awarded the Oscar for Best Actor and permitted to give a 19-minute long speech.”

He went up to three references.

“Our next category is documentary feature, which as you may recall is where we had that little skirmish last year,” Kimmel said. “Hopefully this time it goes off without a hitch, or at least without Hitch.”

Will Smith played “Hitch” in the 2005 film where he starred opposite Eva Mendes as a matchmaker of sorts.

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