Viewers of the 2022 Oscars were left speechless after Will Smith smacked comedian Chris Rock in the face on stage.
Chris, 57, made a joke about Jada Pinket Smith's shaved head telling her: "Jada, can't wait for G.I. Jane 2." However, the joke didn't go down well with her husband Will, 53, who stormed on stage and hit the presenter, the Mirror reports.
After returning to his seat, Will, who went on to win Best Actor later in the evening, yelled: "Keep my wife's name out of your f****** mouth." Jada, 50, previously opened up about her decision to shave her head, after suffering from alopecia. But what does Chris' G.I. Jane reference mean?
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G.I. Jane
G.I. Jane is an action movie from 1997 which stars Demi Moore as the lead, Jordan O'Neil. In the film, she is the first woman to go through Navy Seal training and even beats many of her male peers during it.
Jordan, in order to complete her tough training and to solidify her position as a Seal, shaves her head and becomes the titular G.I. Jane. She ends up completely hiding away her femininity. Demi's character's look led to Chris making a joke about Jada's buzzcut.
Following the shocking smack, Will returned to his seat and Chris looked dazed and stunned by what happened. He attempted to act casual as he resumed his presenting role for the best documentary feature category.
Chris joked with the audience: "Wow, Will Smith just smacked the s**t out of me." He also said: "That was the greatest night in the history of television."
Later on in the evening, Will went on to win his first Oscar for his performance in King Richard and apologised on stage for his previous actions.
Previous joke about Jada
It wasn't the first time Chris made a joke about Jada during an Awards show. Will and his wife Jada boycotted the Oscar Awards in 2016 as it was the second year in a row that no talent of colour were nominated.
While presenting, Chris previously said: "Jada Pinkett Smith boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties—I wasn’t invited!" He added: "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 Wild Wild West !"
Jada's alopecia
Last year, Jada opened up about her struggles with alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss. She took to social media to explain why she completely shaved her head.
"Now at this point, I can only laugh… y’all know I’ve been struggling with alopecia. Just all of a sudden, one day…it just showed up like that," she said.
"Now, this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide. So, I thought I’d just share it so y’all not asking any questions… Mama’s gonna have to take it down to the scalp so nobody thinks she got brain surgery or something. Me and this alopecia are going to be friends … period!"
