Will Smith and the Oscars Enter the Speed Force

Will Smith slapped a guy. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on national television after Rock joked that Jada Pinkett Smith looked like she was going off to star in G.I. Jane 2 because of her bald head (she actually has alopecia.) Five years ago, people asked where we were when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway gave Best Picture to the wrong movie. From now on, we’ll be asking where we were when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. And frankly, this moment is a perfect encapsulation of the absolute shit show that was this year’s Oscars, and the whole Oscar season leading up to it.

I dreaded watching these Oscars. For the past few months, the Academy has shown nothing but contempt to Oscar fans like myself, taking eight of the awards off the telecast and adding presenters like Tony Hawk, who means nothing to anyone under the age of 25. Doing this not only made no difference in the run time (this year’s was actually longer than the last three), it deprived us of watching people experience some of the greatest moments of their lives, like Riz Ahmed, who won an Oscar for…