Will Smith slapping Chris Rock will go down as the most shocking Oscar moment

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/03/will-smith-chris-rock-oscars/629400

Forget the 2017 Best Picture mix-up or David Niven's quip in response to a streaker in 1974. Smith slapping Rock is, "without hyperbole, the most shocking moment in Oscars history," says David Sims of the moment that ABC censored (but which Australian TV and Japanese TV aired uncensored). Sims adds: "Maybe even more surreal was the effort to then get the show back on track...It was unsettling enough that Smith, one of the most famous actors alive, had done such a thing, even if you’re armed with the context that Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia. But even stranger was that he was widely expected to take the spotlight again in about 15 minutes to receive a Best Actor trophy for his performance in King Richard, as the father of Serena and Venus Williams. And indeed he did, standing on stage in tears and delivering a speech that was emotional, uncomfortable, but undeniably riveting." The 94th Academy Awards will be remembered for what couldn't be planned, says Sims. "Though it might also be presented as a low point for the Academy Awards," he says, "it was also a completely compelling one, a particularly violent reminder of the strange possibilities of live television."