The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars, may think it handed down the punishment of the century by “banning” Will Smith from The Oscars for the next 10 years, but not everyone agrees.
On Tuesday, The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah weighed in on Smith, Chris Rock, and The Great Oscar Smackdown of 2022, and he’s not so sure that Smith’s punishment fits the crime. In fact, he’s pretty sure the decision to prevent Smith from attending the Oscars ceremony for a full decade is actually something to be envied. As Noah explained:
When I first read the headline, I thought this was the worst punishment ever… But then I got into the details and I realized he gets to keep his Oscar and he can still win Oscars even though he’s banned. So in many ways, this isn’t a punishment. Yeah, this is a favor.
Will Smith doesn’t have to go to the ceremony. He doesn’t have to get dressed up, he doesn’t have to sit through a bunch of boring awards that he doesn’t care about—oh, Best Punctuation in a Digital Recycled Film. Kill me! He doesn’t have to pretend to be happy when he loses. I wish I could get banned from the Emmys. I WISH! Every year I have to go and act like I might beat John Oliver. It’s a nightmare!
Noah also thinks that the Academy should have involved Rock in deciding the punishment. “Because if Will was still going to the Oscars, that’s at least four hours where Chris Rock knows where he is. Now he could be anywhere.”
Over the weekend, SNL “Weekend Update” anchor Colin Jost shared a similar opinion on Smith’s so-called “punishment,” and suggested that a more appropriate measure would have been to force Smith to host next year’s ceremony.
You can watch the full Daily Show clip above (beginning around the 2:55 mark).