Oscars 2023 producer says ‘harder’ Will Smith jokes were cut

nypost.com:

“We didn’t want to make this year all about last year,” McNearney, 45, told Variety. “I cannot tell you how many Will Smith jokes we had that then we got rid of.

We think that only the best for that room made it.”“There were certainly some that went harder, but we didn’t think that was our place to do that.

That should be Chris Rock, not us,” she added.Despite that, Kimmel did include several nods to the infamous “slapgate.”“We really liked the idea of making fun of the reaction to it last year,” McNearney explained.“I think we’re all still in a bit of shock of how that went down and how after watching that violence everyone had to then sit through an acceptance speech.”During 2022’s live broadcast, Smith, 54, walked onto the stage and slapped Rock after the comedian made a joke about the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.Rock, 58, compared Pinkett Smith — who has alopecia and shaved her head last summer — to Demi Moore’s bald character “G.I.