Trevor Noah mocks Will Smith’s Oscar slap during Grammy Awards monologue – Billboard

On Sunday April 3 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand, Trevor Noah returned as host of the Grammy Awards after first hosting the show in 2021.

The 64th annual Grammy Awards came just a week after the 2022 Oscars, which made headlines mainly for the unscripted incident where Will Smith, before winning Best Actor, slapped the host Chris Rock in the face for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia. The temptation to reference the topic of the water cooler of the week proved too great for Grammy host Noah, who nearly nailed his monologue without mentioning The Slap. But at the last minute he went.

Describing the night’s events to come, Noah promised that “this is a concert where we’re giving out prizes” and assured viewers that “we’re going to keep people’s names out of our mouths”; after the slap, Smith twice yelled at Rock from the audience to “keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth”.

Questlove also referenced Will Smith’s Oscar slap in the Song of the Year presentation. “I’m going to give this award and I trust you stay 500 feet away from me,” he said, adding, “I’m just playing.” Just a week ago, Questlove won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for its soul summer documentary; his acceptance speech immediately followed the Will Smith/Chris Rock incident, which understandably overshadowed the Roots drummer’s moment in the Oscars broadcast.

Moreover, the Daily show the host joked about Gucci House with stars Lady Gaga and Jared Leto both attending the ceremony: “It’s not a house full of Gucci, more like a Gucci apartment. A Gucci AirBnB. He also described the Grammy-nominated Justin Bieber and Giveon collaboration “Peaches” as “the best thing for peaches since that Timothée Chalamet movie.” If you don’t know what this refers to, just Google “call me by your name fishing” — but for God’s sake, don’t do it on a work computer.