It will be a whole decade before we see Will Smith on the Oscars stage again.
The Academy has formally announced that he will be banned from the show for the next 10 years, following the infamous slap heard around the world on the show a couple weeks ago.
In an official statement from the Academy, obtained by Fox News, they also apologized for how they handled the situation (Will reportedly refused to leave and accepted the Best Actor award for King Richard moments after slapping Chris Rock), and explained their decision in detail:
“The 94th Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year; however, those moments were overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr. Smith exhibit on stage.
During our telecast, we did not adequately address the situation in the room. For this, we are sorry. This was an opportunity for us to set an example for our guests, viewers and our Academy family around the world, and we fell short — unprepared for the unprecedented.”
At this point, I think we’re all tired of hearing about it, so it looks like we may finally be able to put this story to rest for a while.
Although some of the memes have been gold.
‘Saturday Night Live’ Takes Aim At Will Smith With New “Seat Fillers” Oscars Spoof
With everybody and their mama commenting on the crazy incident, naturally, Saturday Night Live had to do a bit on it, and I’ll admit, it’s pretty damn funny.
In the spoof, Jerrod Carmichael plays a wide-eyed seat filler who finds himself seated directly behind Will Smith (Chris Redd) at the Oscars.
Star struck, he tells Smith that he’s his biggest fan, and how much his career has meant to him.
Smith awkwardly acknowledges his questions and laughs them off, and right when Carmichael asks him for a selfie, Smith says:
“Hey, I’ll be right back man!”
You can hear Chris Rock in the background make the G.I. Jane joke, and sure enough Smith gets up and slaps Rock, and sits right back down like nothing happened.
In total shock, Carmichael finds himself walking on egg shells while trying to talk to Smith, as he interrupts him multiple times to say:
“Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!”
Check it out:
Today, the Board of Governors convened a meeting to discuss how best to respond to Will Smith’s actions at the Oscars, in addition to accepting his resignation. The Board has decided, for a period of 10 years from April 8, 2022, Mr. Smith shall not be permitted to attend any Academy events or programs, in person or virtually, including but not limited to the Academy Awards.”
They also thanked Chris for handling it like a total pro, declining to press any charges and barely speaking out about it since (completely saving their asses from a much worse PR fiasco):
“We want to express our deep gratitude to Mr. Rock for maintaining his composure under extraordinary circumstances. We also want to thank our hosts, nominees, presenters and winners for their poise and grace during our telecast.
This action we are taking today in response to Will Smith’s behavior is a step toward a larger goal of protecting the safety of our performers and guests, and restoring trust in the Academy. We also hope this can begin a time of healing and restoration for all involved and impacted.”
Academy president David Rubin called for the Friday board meeting just days ago, and the meeting was originally scheduled for April 18th, but was moved up after Will resigned from the Academy on April 1st.
Will had previously released his own statement upon resigning, where he apologized again for what happened, admitted he had stolen the spotlight from all the other nominees and winners that night, ultimately saying that he would continue to work on himself going forward:
“Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason.”
And for old times’ sake, I’ll just leave this here:
