Jerry Seinfeld has said he asked Chris Rock to parody the moment he was slapped at the 2022 Oscars by Will Smith during his directorial debut, Unfrosted.
At the ceremony in March 2022, Smith slapped Rock onstage after the comedian made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Following the incident, Smith apologised to Rock, resigned from the Academy, and was banned from attending Academy events for 10 years.
Smith later released another apology on YouTube in July 2022 where he described his behaviour as “unacceptable”, adding: “I just didn’t realise, I wasn’t thinking about how many people got hurt in that moment.”
Now, speaking on an episode of Fly On The Wall podcast, Seinfeld spoke about an original scene he wanted to include in his new Netflix movie that parodied the infamous moment.
The film, which references the creation of the Pop Tart, sees Seinfeld star alongside Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater and Bill Burr.
Of his desire to recreate the moment, Seinfeld said: “The other thing I wanted to do that I almost did was Chris Rock was going to be the emcee of the Bowl & Spoon Awards”, which is a fictional awards show that honoured the best in breakfast cereals.
He continued: “And we shot that right after the Will Smith slap. I was going to have somebody come up on the stage and have Chris punch ’em out as they got there.”
Seinfeld said Rock turned down the offer, explaining that “he was a little shook from that event”.
He added: “I don’t know if it would have worked. It was an idea.”
Since the incident, Rock has joked about the Oscars slap during various stand-up shows, including a set with Dave Chappelle.
Meanwhile, Unfrosted has not fared well with critics and currently has a 40 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Barry Hertz of The Daily Globe and Mail said the film was “a distressingly laugh-free affair” while The Washington Post called it “forgettable”.