Following final 12 months’s ceremony, Smith attended Vainness Truthful’s afterparty, the place he clutched his Oscar whereas singing and dancing to his track “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.”
Kimmel additionally warned viewers members throughout his monologue to not come onstage and threaten him, noting that he is protected by motion stars within the room like Michael B. Jordan, Pedro Pascal, Michelle Yeoh, and Andrew Garfield.
“If any of you get mad at a joke and resolve you wish to come up right here and get jiggy with it, it’s not going to be straightforward. There are a couple of of my pals you’re going to need to get by first. You are gonna need to get by the heavyweight champ, Adonis Creed, earlier than you get to me,” Kimmel mentioned earlier than the telecast reduce to a shot of Jordan, who stars within the Creed movie franchise.
Kimmel referenced the slap once more when saying the presenters for Greatest Documentary Function, which was the class Rock offered final 12 months when Smith took the stage and slapped him. This 12 months, Riz Ahmed and Questlove offered the award to the movie Navalny.
“The subsequent class is documentary characteristic, which as it’s possible you’ll recall, is the place issues went off the rails final 12 months. Hopefully, tonight it goes off with no hitch. Or not less than with out Hitch,” Kimmel mentioned, referencing Smith’s 2005 rom-com Hitch.
Almost two hours into the present, Kimmel provided one other nod to final 12 months’s incident, joking about how lengthy the present was going.
“This level of the present type of makes you miss the slapping, huh?” Kimmel mentioned.
On the finish of the present, Kimmel made his final reference to final 12 months’s slap. Whereas exiting the stage, he walked towards an indication that learn: “Number of Oscars Telecasts Without Incident.”
He switched the quantity from 000 to 001.
