If you, like others, decided to skip watching the Oscars this year, you missed out on some memorable moments. One of them in particular will forever define this year’s ceremony. Yes, I’m talking about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock. *gasp*
The Oscars tried everything to increase their ratings this year after a decline in viewing figures over the years. Having Oscars in person, after a year marred by Covid and online events definitely helped. Other than that they had big stars, live performances, comedians, charming hosts and the likes. But in the end, none of these things mattered much. Because what caught everyone’s attention was something the academy hadn’t even anticipated- a joke and its reactions.
There were a lot of shots fired at the Oscars 2022. Amy Schumer commented about Leo DiCaprio’s tendency to date younger women. “I mean, Leonardo DiCaprio- what can I even say about him? He’s done so much to fight climate change and leave behind a cleaner, greener planet for his girlfriends.”
She also made a sarcastic comment about the gender pay-gaps, “This year, the academy hired three women to host the Oscars because it’s cheaper than hiring one man.”
The joke that caught everyone’s attention, however, was Chris Rock’s joke. He poked fun at Jada Pinkett Smith.
It wasn’t the first time. When Chris Rock hosted the Oscars in 2016, there was an #OscarsSoWhite scandal due to which Jada snubbed the ceremony. He acknowledged her absence and commented “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s parties. I wasn’t invited!”
6 years later, he was back on the Oscars stage to mock her. The difference being, this time she was there. Unlucky for his jawline, so was her husband.
“Jada, I love ya,” he began, when he took to the stage to present the award for the best documentary, adding- “GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see it!”
First off, what does the joke mean?
It was a reference to the 1997 movie, G.I. Jane in which Demi Moore shaved her head to play Jordan O’Neil, the first woman to undergo Navy Seal training. With his joke, he was implying that Jada could play the role in the a possible sequel of the movie because of her closely-shaven head. The joke was insensitive because Jada has alopecia. She has been open about her battle with the auto-immune disease that causes hair to come out, often in clumps. Recently, she shaved off her entire head after motivation and support from her daughter and the rest of her family.
Jada wasn’t thrilled about the joke. She looked cross, rolled her eyes and didn’t let out a laugh. What Will Smith did next is no secret. He walked up to the stage and slapped Chris Rock.
Rock, who was in shock, handled the situation with a remarkable presence of mind. His reaction was an appropriate representation of what was going on in everyone’s minds- “Wow! Wow! Will Smith just smacked the sh*t out of me!” When he realised that he’d just made Oscar history, he commented on it: “That was the greatest night in the history of television.”
Smith wasn’t as appreciative of his presence of mind as he shouted from his seat, “keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth.” Whoa, expletives on stage during a live TV broadcast.
Broadcast network ABC had cut the live feed to avoid offending viewers at home. Everyone was shocked. The looks on the faces of celebrities was memable (something with the potential to become a meme).
Later, Will Smith received an academy award for Best Actor for his role in the film King Richard, where he shed some tears on stage. In his acceptance speech, Will said, “I want to apologise to the academy. I want to apologise to all my fellow nominees. I hope the academy invites me back.” Seems like the day was a rollercoaster of emotions for the actor. He later took to Instagram to apologise for the incident, calling his behaviour unacceptable and inexcusable and publicly asking for Chris’ forgiveness.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, right?
According to a tweet by TickPick, a live event ticketing company, they sold more tickets for Chris Rock’s show in one night than they did in the whole month! He is set to perform standup at Boston’s Wilbur Theater. On March 18, the cheapest ticket was sold for $46, but had increased to $411 by Monday (the day after Oscars) (source: CBS). The tickets for his Friday show, now start at $503!
The Will and Chris incident was probably the most talked about after Oscars. However, in the pharma marketing world, Pfizer and BioNTech co-sponsoring the award show was a big moment. The vaccine-making pair were one of the first ones to come up with a COVID-19 vaccine and made possible the two main vaccines in the States.
German biotech company BioNTech originally developed the mRNA shot. Before their deal with Pfizer, they were a little-known startup. Now, here they are, sponsoring the Oscars. They really made it, and went full Hollywood.
Other than sponsoring the Oscars, Pfizer is working on some big things.
Imprinted along with the slap, is global awareness of Jada’s condition Alopecia. The awareness is to Pfizer’s benefit. On 29th March, they announced positive top-line results from the yearlong Phase 3 Trial of an oral drug, by the name of etrasimod, for the treatment of moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis (UC). Here’s the catch, the drug is also being investigated for a range of immuno-inflammatory diseases, including alopecia areata. Since this drug yielded positive results in the third phase, its safe and certified. Now they need to conduct randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging study in patients with alopecia. They’re already working on it. All they have to do is advertise it while the world is still talking about the slap and alopecia. Free publicity for Pfizer!
That slap might be worth a million dollars for Pfizer and Chris Rock…
The internet had mixed reactions but some of them were just happy they got new memes (finally!). I’ll leave you with some of them.
The Echo-nomist 
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