One week ago, during the Oscars in Hollywood, California, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face live on stage. It all started when Rock walked on stage to present an award, but before presenting the awards, he cracked a few jokes, as comedians do. One of the jokes was about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair. Her husband decided to defend her by getting violent and then yelling profanity at the comedian.
This incident has been a topic of conversation throughout the past week with some people picking sides. Some people have defended Rock, saying he didn’t know Pinkett Smith’s hair style was due to a medical condition and that violence is never the answer. Others have defended Smith saying that he was defending his wife and that Rock was out of line.
Smith has since apologized to the Academy and to Rock. He has also resigned from the Academy.
One week after the shocking incident at the Oscars it was time for another awards show, the Grammys. For the second year in a row, Trevor Noah hosted the awards show, which was held in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand.
Noah had to decide if he was going to reference the incident at the Oscars or not. He could have decided to ignore it and pretend it never happened, but he went a different way. He very subtly threw shade at Smith by paraphrasing what Smith yelled at Rock after slapping him in the face.
When Smith returned to his seat at the Oscars, he yelled, “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth.” Then he repeated himself.
During Noah’s opening monologue at the Grammy’s he explained what to expect from the evening. He described the awards show as “a concert where we’re giving out awards.” Then he added, “We’re going to be listening to some music. We’re going to be dancing. We’re going to be singing. We’re going to be keeping people’s names out of our mouths, and we’re going to be giving out awards.”
Watch the video below to hear more of Noah’s monologue and to hear the reaction from the audience when he said “w’ere going to be keeping people’s name out of our mouths.”