Grammys 2022: Trevor Noah opens award ceremony with Will Smith 'slap' joke

Comedian Trevor Noah opened the 64th Annual Grammy Awards by alluding to Hollywood star Will Smiths controversial slap of Chris Rock during the OscarsThe Grammys took place just one week after the Academy Awards where Smith took to the stage and slapped Rock after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smiths bald head while presenting the documentary feature category reports VarietyDont even think of this as an award show Noah said about the ceremonyIts a concert where we are giving out awards we will be listening to music dancing sing keeping peoples names out of our mouths and we are going to give people awards all throughout the night So lets get straight into itQuestlove also addressed Smiths slap while presenting the Grammy for Song of the Year saying All right I am going to present this award and I trust that you people will stay 500 feet away from me As they say it is far better to give than to receive Well Im not so sure about that because last Sunday it felt pretty good to receiveQuestlove won the Oscar for documentary feature right after Will Smith slapped Chris RockBoth Smith and Rock discussed the incident themselves in the days after the Oscar ceremony Smith apologised to Rock on March 28The actor published a statement on social media writing My behavior at last nights Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable I would like to publicly apologise to you Chris I was out of line and I was wrong I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to beRock waited until his March 30 standup comedy show in Boston to address the slap publicly although the comedian mostly stayed away from talking about the incidentRock told the audience I dont have a bunch of shit about what happened so if you came to hear that I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend Im still kind of processing what happened So at some point Ill talk about that shit And it will be serious and funnyMixed reports have since surfaced about how the Academy and Oscars producers shouldve handled the incident during the ceremonyThe Academy claimed it asked Smith to leave but the actor refused However sources told Variety that Smith was never formally asked to exit the eventOscars producer Will Packer told Good Morning America that he asked the Academy not to physically remove Smith from the premises because it was not what Rock wanted Although LAPD was reportedly ready to arrest Smith Rock declined to press charges or file a reportSmith announced on April 1 that he was resigning from the AcademyHe still faces suspension expulsion or other sanctions from the Academy which condemned his violent actions following the OscarsThe next Academy board meeting is scheduled for April 18This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever