Jimmy Kimmel Slaps Back At The Slap In 2023 Oscars Monologue

deadline.com:

UPDATE, with video: Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel went there: With everyone wondering whether he’d use last year’s big moment – the Slap of Chris Rock by Will Smith – for monologue source material, the host wasted little time providing an answer. “If anyone commits an act of violence tonight,” Kimmel snarked, “you will be awarded the Oscar for Best Actor.” He continued that such an act would also be rewarded with 19 minutes of speech time, a reference to Smith’s acceptance speech last year.

Kimmel also took aim at the audience response to The Slap: “If anything happens,” he told this year’s crowd, “just do what you did last year – nothing.

Maybe even give the assailant a hug.” The host then warned that if anyone “wants to jump on stage and get jiggy with it” – another not so subtle jibe at Smith – they’d first have to get through security: An audience filled with superheroes from Spider-man, The Mandalorian, Creed, Everything Everywhere All at Once and even “The Fableman,” Steven Spielberg.

Kimmel took the stage after a brief video opening showing behind the scenes footage of various nominated films, as well as clips from those films, ending with a joke bit in which Kimmel was seated behind Tom Cruise in a Top Gun jet.