‘SNL’ recap: Show poked fun, again and again, at Oscar slap flap

Entertainment

Host Jerrod Carmichael didn’t want to talk about the infamous incident but everyone else did.

Jerrod Carmichael promised he wasn’t going to talk about it. And in talking about how he did not want to talk about it, he inevitably sparked a whole conversation about the infamous Oscars slap. 

“I’m not going to talk about it,” Carmichael said in his opening monologue for “Saturday Night Live.”

After six days of everything from memes to in-depth analyses, Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars last Sunday has been the hottest topic of conversation. And it was the hottest topic of last night’s episode of “Saturday Night Live” as well. 

Carmichael, an American comedian and host of last night’s episode, recently released his new comedy special on HBO Max, “Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel,” on Friday. In the special, Carmichael came out as gay.

However, Carmichael said he was encouraged to talk about the slap to “heal the nation.”

“I’ve been gay for like 48 hours bro,” Carmichael said. “Like there’s so much gay stuff I gotta do before I can heal the nation.”

From comments from O.J. Simpson’s take on the slap during Weekend Update to an actual reenactment of the Oscar show with Chris Redd as Will Smith, the slap was the center of last night’s show.

“Honestly, I can’t even blame the academy for not knowing what to do. Nobody knew what to do,” Colin Jost said during the Weekend Update segment. “I think we should just acknowledge that it was one of the craziest things we will ever see in our lives.”

Still, other topics in the news from the show’s three-week hiatus showed up, including the Supreme Court Justice hearing for Ketanji Jackson Brown and the first union at Amazon.

Here were some of the funniest moments — both slap and non-slap related — from last night’s episode. 

“Fox & Friends”  Cold Open

The opening — designed as an episode of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” — featured hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade played by Alex Moffat, Heidi Gardner, and Mikey Day, respectively. The three talked about Trump’s social media app Truth Social and special guest Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas, played by Kenan Thompson and Kate McKinnon. 

President Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, even made an appearance over a facetime call from Mar-a-Lago. Inevitably, the hosts talk 

“I did see slap, I enjoyed slap, I was very impressed by Hitch,” Johnson said as Trump before going on an irrelevant tangent. “Quite an arm on Hitch, I always knew he had an arm.” 

Host Jerrod Carmichael: “Can You Believe it’s been six days?”

In addition to Carmichael’s discussion about not discussing the Oscar slap, he talks about how it feels like the slap happened farther back than a week.

“Six days! This happened a week ago,” Carmichael said. “Doesn’t it feel like it happened years ago? Like doesn’t it feel like it happened when we were all in high school?”

Weekend Update

Weekend Update is known for poking fun at recent topics in the news and this week, hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che did not hold back, especially in regards to the slap.

“During his acceptance speech, Will Smith said ‘Love will make you do crazy things,’” Che said. “You know what else will make you do crazy things? Crazy.”

The segment also interviewed O.J. Simpson, played by Keenan, about the slap.

“Will Smith might have overreacted by slapping Chris Rock,” Keenan said while playing Simpson. “I mean, Will, I’m not saying you got rage issues, but hey if the glove fits.”

Seat Fillers

No skit dealt with the Oscar incident as directly as this one, where a seat filler at the Oscar award show interacts with Will Smith before, during, and after the infamous slap. 

Will Smith, played by Chris Redd, interacts with a seat filler played by Carmichael in a friendly manner, however, stops mid-conversation to slap Chris Rock. He proceeds to talk to the fan, asking if he wants a selfie and smiling, as if nothing happened.