Jimmy Kimmel knows a thing or two about moments at the Oscars that seem like bits at first, but turn out to be real. In the year he hosted, it was La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz saying, “There’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke.” On Sunday, it was Will Smith approaching the stage while Chris Rock was presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature, and slapping him. In the Moonlight year, Kimmel responded to the mix-up by trying to get Warren Beatty to stop talking (good ideal). How would he have handled what happened with Smith and Rock?
“A lot of my friends have been texting me asking what I would have done if I had been on stage,” Kimmel said during Monday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I would have run is what I would have done. The second I saw Will Smith get up out of the seat, I’d have been half way to the Wetzel’s Pretzels, enjoying the samples in front of the store.”
Kimmel also praised Rock for handling the slap “about as well as you could possibly handle being slapped on stage at the Oscars. He didn’t even flinch… I would’ve been crying so hard. No one did anything. Nobody lifted a finger. Spider-Man was there. Aquaman was there. Catwoman, all sitting on their hands. Nobody helped Chris Rock.”
You can watch the monologue above.