So Will Smith won an Oscar — and some other things happened. I could start off this 2022 Oscars recap by ignoring the elephant in the room and talking about the winners and losers, the structure of the show and the musical performances but let’s be honest, we all just want to talk about the slap so let’s start there. 

If you somehow haven’t heard about this yet, here’s a quick recap: Chris Rock was presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature, made a bald joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Jada’s husband Will Smith (you may have heard of him) saw that his wife was upset, went up on stage and slapped Rock, went back to his seat and cussed him out on live television. As Rock said afterwards, it was the greatest night in the history of television. It’s certainly one of the most unbelievable and entertaining things I’ve ever seen happen on a live broadcast. 

First of all, I 100% understand Will Smith standing up for his family and protecting his wife, I get it. But also, Chris Rock is a comedian that makes jokes for a living. And he made a joke… because he’s a comedian. It was a decent joke but still got a chuckle out of a lot of people in attendance. The reason I say it’s a decent joke is because one of the people that laughed at it was none other than Will Smith. 

Now I understand Smith being upset about the joke after seeing how it impacted his wife, but there were so many better ways to handle it. He could’ve talked to Rock during a commercial break or at the after-party and asked him to apologize and not make those types of jokes anymore. But nope, Oscar from “Shark Tales” decided to deck Marty from “Madagascar” in front of millions of people. I will say that Rock handled the situation very well, as he took that slap like a champ, kept his composure and continued to present the Best Documentary award. 

Now, I know some people think that this whole thing was staged, which is what I thought at first too. After seeing the reactions from everyone in the room and Smith’s apology he issued to Rock and the Academy the following day, I think this was a real and genuinely insane moment that happened on live television. 

Everything that followed in the awards ceremony was so uncomfortable, awkward and had such a strange vibe. The presentation of the Best Actor award happened about thirty minutes after the slap and it was no surprise that Smith’s name was called in this category. His speech contained a lot of emotion, a sort of apology and a proclamation that he was put on this Earth to love and protect people; except for thirty minutes ago when he slapped Rock on stage. This was truly the most entertaining and weirdest Oscars I’ve ever watched and if it gets more people to talk about and potentially watch more of the films that were nominated, then that’s a win I suppose. 

Speaking of those films that were nominated, the actual winners of the awards weren’t too much of a surprise for anyone that’s been following the awards circuit for the past few months. “Dune” cleaned up in the technical categories winning the most awards of the night with six. The acting, directing and screenplay categories went to all of the favorites to win, and “CODA” pulled off a Best Picture upset that many people had been predicting would happen. I was very happy with the winners and thought the love was spread to many of the different films nominated. “CODA” also made history by becoming the first film from a streaming service (Apple TV+) to win Best Picture. Who would’ve thought that the company that makes iPhones would win a Best Picture Academy Award before Netflix?

As far as the structure of the show, it was already a bit of a rocky road before Chris got rocked. ABC decided to have a pre-show before the actual ceremony that gave awards to the short films and some of the technical categories. The winners of the awards were taped before the main ceremony started and their speeches were shown during the show in a more condensed version. I don’t think this was executed horribly, as they still allowed for the winners to make their speeches and have their moment in the spotlight, but the main point of this move was to cut down on the runtime of the show. Well, that didn’t work because the show clocked in at around three hours and forty-five minutes, which was the longest Oscars since 2018.

The three hosts of the night, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall were fine. They made a couple of funny jokes, but most of them were low-hanging fruit that you’d expect to hear at the Academy Awards. Sykes' field trip to the Academy Museum and the bits about COVID testing and seat fillers were unnecessary and added to an already long show. 

Also, the In Memoriam segment of the show is supposed to be a quiet and somber time to honor all of the incredible talents that have been lost in the past year in the film industry. This year, however, they decided to create an upbeat performance that focused more on the dancers and singers than the actual people that passed away. 

Another odd choice, which is understandable considering its popularity, was having “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from “Encanto” being performed at the ceremony even though it wasn’t nominated for Best Original Song. And not only that, they decided to throw Megan Thee Stallion, who is incredibly talented, into the song and have some new lyrics put in. Good job producers on cutting down the runtime of the show, this was definitely necessary.

I did think there were a few positive things about this ceremony, however, with one of them being the other live performances of the songs. After last year’s Academy Awards decided to move the Best Original Song performances to the pre-show, it was nice to have them included in the ceremony again. The standout for me was Billie Eilish and Finneas’ performance of “No Time to Die” from the James Bond film of the same name. This song ended up winning the award for Best Original Song which was one of my favorite moments from the night. Speaking of James Bond, the sixty-year celebration video of the character and franchise was a nice surprise even though Tony Hawk, Shaun White and Kelly Slater introduced it for some reason. 

An area that I hope the Academy keeps up in coming years is the reunions of actors from different movies. This year they had a “Godfather” reunion with Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, which made me incredibly happy as it’s my favorite film of all time. There were also reunions for “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Juno” and “Pulp Fiction” that were delightful to see and I hope they use that formula for presenters in the future. 

So there it is, another year of movies has passed and another Oscars that can’t quite seem to figure out how to create a good show. Some things were out of their control, you may remember the slap I mentioned earlier, but some things need to be adjusted to bring back a simple presentation of awards and honoring of the winners. It shouldn’t be that difficult but like I said earlier if more people see the movies that were nominated then that’s a win for the film industry. But I’m guessing more people are going to discover “G.I. Jane” for the first time — it’s just a hunch.