Comedian Jerrod Carmichael addresses Will Smith Oscars slap during 'SNL' hosting gig
Apr 03, 2022
Washington [US], April 3 : American stand-up comedian Jerrod Carmichael, who recently hosted 'Saturday night Live', during the show, has addressed Will Smith slapping presenter Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.
According to Fox News, Carmichael opened his monologue deadpanning, "I'm not going to talk about it."
"I want to be clear up top, I talked about it enough," he said. The comedian added he was tired of talking about it, thinking about it, "and you can't make me talk about it!"
Carmichael said it was amazing that the incident only happened six days ago. "Like doesn't it feel like it happened when we were all in high school? ... It feels like we've been living in the wake of it our entire lives."
He stated that on Monday people couldn't get him to "shut up" about the slap, which he only ever referred to as "it" and by Friday he promised himself that he would never talk about it again. "And then ['SNL' creator and executive producer] Lorne [Michaels] came into my dressing room. He was like 'I think you need to talk about it.' He said the 'nation needs to heal.'"
Carmichael then joked that he couldn't possibly heal the nation because the nation doesn't know who he is, calling himself "the least famous host in 'SNL' history."
At the end of his monologue, Carmichael threw the "nation needs to heal" baton to former President Obama, telling him through the camera, "we need you back because I think you're going to have to talk about it. The nation needs to heal."
Following the monologue, later during the show, Carmichael, who recently came out as gay in his HBO comedy special 'Rothaniel', went on to do a sketch around the infamous incident.
