We’ve heard plenty of opinions on the Will Smith slap since the Academy Awards, but John Oliver is pointing out that there’s one in particular we “maybe needed the least.”
Last week, O.J. Simpson said shared a video to Twitter where he addressed the incident, saying he thought “Will was wrong” even though he felt the actor’s pain.
“Look, I understood the feeling,” Simpson said. “In my life I’ve been through a lot of crap, when I was raising two young kids and every comedian in the country had an O.J. routine. And don’t think I wouldn’t wanna B-slap a couple of those guys, but you gotta accept it’s humor.”
On Sunday’s episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, Oliver was quick to mock Simpson’s readiness to share a hot take on the matter, and started his segment with, “Not you O.J., not you.”
“No one wants to hear from you on this—especially, when you seem to be coming live from the COVID patio of a Señor Frog’s,” the host said. “You can just sit this one out. Think of this situation like a rowdy bachelorette ordering a mimosa: We want as little juice involved here as humanly possible.”
Oliver is far from the first comic to poke fun at Smith slapping Chris Rock after the stand-up made a joke that struck a nerve regarding Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia. Saturday Night Live also aired a sketch over the weekend with Chris Redd starring as Will Smith and comedian/guest host Jerrod Carmichael as a seat filler concerned about the incident. Carmichael also used some of his opening monologue to crack jokes about how overplayed he feels the slap has been.
“I’m not going to talk about it,” the 34-year-old said. “I’ma be clear up top. I’ve talked about it enough. Kept talking about it. Kept thinking about it. I don’t wanna talk about it and you can’t make me talk about it.”
