Following final yr’s ceremony, Smith attended Self-importance Truthful’s afterparty, the place he clutched his Oscar whereas singing and dancing to his music “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 determine you need to come up right here and get jiggy with it, it’s not going to be simple. There are a number 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 asserting the presenters for Finest Documentary Function, which was the class Rock introduced final yr when Smith took the stage and slapped him. This yr, Riz Ahmed and Questlove introduced the award to the movie Navalny.
“The following class is documentary function, which as chances are you’ll recall, is the place issues went off the rails final yr. Hopefully, tonight it goes off with out a hitch. Or no 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 yr’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 yr’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.
