Oscars 2022 Review: 7 Ups & 8 Downs

3. Will Smith Slaps Chris Rock & Derails The Show

Roughly two-thirds of the way through the show, something happened that not a single person watching could've ever seen coming.

While up on stage to present an award, Chris Rock made a crass joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head - a result of her suffering from alopecia - prompting her incensed husband Will Smith to walk to the stage, slap Rock around the face, and sit back down, before shouting at him, "Keep my wife's name out your f**king mouth."

Though at first many suspected the moment was a misjudged gag, it quickly became clear that the altercation was real, and in turn sucked all remaining air out of the rest of the ceremony.

Social media was alight with discussions about the slap, with even the most diligent of viewers likely struggling to pay attention to acceptances speeches from the likes of Jane Campion, Jessica Chastain, and the CODA team.

Whatever your own stance on the slap itself, it led to what is surely the most awkward Oscar acceptance speech in history when Smith won the Best Actor award for his performance in King Richard.

Smith's rambling, scarcely coherent, tearful speech was a clumsy attempt to win the audience back following the assault, stating a desire to protect his family and apologising to the assembled Academy members but notably not to Rock.

Since the broadcast the LAPD has stated that Rock opted not to press charges and the Academy has condemned violence at the ceremony. It ultimately seems that Smith has more-or-less gotten away with something few others could: committing assault on live TV and then winning an award 30 minutes later.

It's just unfortunate that such a childish moment of Drama detracted from the actual reason everyone was assembled in the Dolby Theatre in the first place, with Smith's unforced error totally undermining what should've been the greatest moment of his career. Terrible.