Molly McNearney, executive producer of Sunday’s 95th Academy Awards, explained why the “tougher” jokes about Will Smith’s infamous slap on Chris Rock on last year’s show were pulled.
Slap has been the butt of many jokes, but “we didn’t want to do everything this year that we did last year,” said McNearney, who is married to 2023 Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel. Diversity.
“I can’t tell you how many Will Smith jokes we had that we got rid of,” she said. “We think only the best made it into this room.”
“There were, of course, some who worked harder, but we didn’t think it was our business,” McNearney added. “It should be Chris Rock, not us.”
Rock really hit himself back with his life Netflix special “Selective Outrage” which aired earlier in March. He joked that he still had “Summertime” ringing in his ears.