The Oscars has taken serious steps to avoid another Will Smith incident

As the show proceeded, no one was totally sure if Will Smith slapping Chris Rock was actually a joke at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022.

Rehearsals occur for the event and this hadn't been included as part of those. Additionally, Rock was reading off a teleprompter for his speech so the majority of the content was already screened for any potential offence. However, the comedian's comment about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head was not received well by her or her husband. Pinkett Smith was seen to roll her eyes disparagingly in the laughter and Smith then approached Rock to strike him for the insult.

Although Rock was similarly startled, viewers were divided over whether or not the two had arranged this and if the whole thing was in fact a stunt to remedy the dwindling numbers tuning into the Academy Awards. Obviously, the truth emerged, and Smith was slammed with a 10 year ban from the event, handed in his resignation from the organisation, and projects were cancelled. Those cancellations apparently weren't anything to do with the controversial act, but, it's a tough sell.

Here's Smith's own words on what happened:

Following that, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has started up a "crisis team" should anything like this arise again. "We’ve run many scenarios. So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we’re planning for just in case it does happen," said CEO Bill Kramer in an interview with Time (via Variety).

"These crisis plans - the crisis communication teams and structures we have in place - allow us to say this is the group that we have to gather very quickly. This is how we all come together. This is the spokesperson. This will be the statement. And obviously depending on the specifics of the crisis, and let’s hope something doesn’t happen and we never have to use these, but we already have frameworks in place that we can modify," continued Kramer. The 95th Academy Awards will be held on 12 March, and I imagine there will be ridicule at Smith's expense, but he's actually able to laugh at himself for his outburst now.

Topics: TV And Film