In the year of our Lord 2024, you would think everyone in and outside of Hollywood would’ve grown tired of Will Smith/the slap jokes. But that definitely wasn’t the case at the 76th Primetime Emmys on Sunday. I’ll explain.
The joke was revived for the hundredth time thanks to—get this—Will Smith, the creator of “Slow Horses,” who took home the award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. A popular AppleTV+ show starring Gary Oldman, Smith was met with thunderous applause as he took the stage and once he arrived—he delivered one line that prompted laughs from some folks in the audience but major eyerolls from of folks online.
“First of all, relax. Despite my name, I come in peace,” Smith said, a clear callback to the actor Smith and the now infamous Oscars slap. While the in-person crowd took a liking to the joke, the virtual crowd on X/Twitter wasn’t having it and subsequently dubbed him as the “White Will Smith” while expressing their displeasure over the dig.
“Not white Will Smith making a tasteless “I come in peace” joke that throws shots at Black Will Smith,” wrote one user.
“Wait that’s not the Will Smith I thought it was. And that little joke…,” another penned.
“The Emmys don’t have enough of Will Smith smacking people,” said one other user.
“I just think if your name is also Will Smith…you need to add an initial or something. Ps. The ‘despite my name, I come in peace’ was corny,” another user wrote.
“Will Smith Oscar jokes in 2024,” wrote one user who added an accompanying video of a scene from “Scary Movie” where a teacher tells a student to “shut the fuck up.”
Whether you’re still salty with the “Black Will Smith” or not for what he pulled two years ago, let me just echo some of the aforementioned sentiments by agreeing that the slap jokes and any form of references to it are OLD and BORING. I get it, it’s a tongue-in-cheek, moment. But please, the Academy has moved on, Smith has moved on, Chris Rock has moved on—it’s about time we all do, too.