On March 27, 2022, the U.S. celebrated the 94th year of the Academy Awards. According to the Oscars organization, the event is held to “recognize and uphold excellence in the motion picture arts and sciences, inspire imagination, and connect the world through the medium of motion pictures.” 

This award ceremony is supposed to promote the excellence displayed through the art of motion pictures. Actor Will Smith, who was also awarded best actor in the film King Richard, displayed aggravated motion to the face of Chris Rock. Out of harmless humor, Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, appearing in the upcoming “G.I. Jane 2” movie due to the reference of her shaved head. Although Rock never intended to antagonize the Smiths, Jada was disturbed by Rock’s joke due to her struggle with hair loss from an autoimmune disorder called Alopecia. When Will recognized the disturbance that this comment caused his wife, he walked up the center stage and smacked Rock straight across the face. 

Following these actions of displayed violence at live-streamed event of which was televised across the U.S., the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors, according to Today.com,  “banned the “King Richard” star from attending the Academy Awards — and any academy-related events and programs — for the next 10 years… [and extended] a message of “deep gratitude” to Rock “for maintaining his composure under extraordinary circumstances.” The collectiveness that Rock displayed after being slammed across the face was most definitely an action that deserved to be recognized. Rock could’ve caused an outburst and slapped Smith back, but by respect of the organization he kept his cool. Although Smith has reached out in apologizing to not only Rock but the whole film system as a whole as well as the audience who was watching the ceremony, he still may never recover from the amount of respect that he lost as what he was held to be.

There are topics of controversy that claim that the whole slap was an April Fool’s joke. However,  April Fool’s was days away from when the incident happened, and Smith is still banned from attending “any academy-related event and program” for an entire decade… doesn’t sound like a very funny April Fools joke to me.