Not mincing his words. Trevor Noah directly addressed the Will Smith and Chris Rock drama while hosting the 2022 Grammy Awards.
“We’re gonna be listening to some music,” the Daily Show host, 38, while opening the show on Sunday, April 3. “We’re gonna be dancing, we’re gonna be singing. We’re gonna be keeping people’s names out of our mouths, and we’re gonna be giving out awards.”
A week prior, at the 2022 Oscars on March 27, the King Richard star, 53, walked on stage and slapped the Saturday Night Live alum, 57, after Rock cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. (The Red Table Talk host has alopecia and has been open about her battle with the autoimmune disease.)
Noah previously tweeted about the altercation immediately after it occurred.
“Wtaf????? That wasn’t scripted????? 😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳,” he wrote at the time.
However, the drama wasn’t over after Smith walked off stage and back to his seat.
“Keep my wife’s name out your f—king mouth!” the Oscar winner shouted twice at the Everybody Hates Chris alum, who replied that he would.
The 7 Pounds actor, who won the Academy Award for best actor later that evening for his role in 2021’s King Richard, apologized to Rock — and many others — the next day.
“Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable,” Smith wrote via Instagram while explaining that hearing “a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.”
After apologizing to Rock by name, the actor wrote, “I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.” He also publicly apologized to the Academy, Oscars viewers, and his King Richard team.
Many viewers were expecting Noah to joke about Kanye West in his opening as the host previously made headlines when he addressed the Recording Academy’s decision to ban the rapper from performing at the ceremony. As Us Weekly confirmed last month, the “Famous” artist, 44, was not allowed to go ahead with his scheduled performance in part because of West’s recent Instagram activity, which included him referring to Noah as a racial slur.
For his part, the South Africa-born comedian previously disagreed with the Academy’s decision to ban the Yeezy founder from hitting the stage at the awards show.
“I said counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye,” Noah tweeted on March 20.
