It was the “Slap Heard Around the World.”
By now, there isn’t a person who hasn’t been in a coma for the last week who’s not well aware that Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the middle of The Oscars on Sunday night. Granted, most of us didn’t see it live, as the event had another dismal year of viewership, with about 13 million tuning it.
This makes it the second-lowest watched Oscars ever, trailing only last year’s show. To put this into perspective, over 57 million people tuned into the Oscars in 1998, and the number was still north of 40 million less than ten years ago.
But yes, let the folks in charge continue to believe that politics has nothing to do with this decline.
Regardless, when Smith slapped Rock on Sunday night, social media went nuts, and right away, I knew this would play in news talk on Monday morning.
First off, it’s incredibly easy to understand. Let’s be honest: understanding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, why inflation continues to spiral out of control, and the latest budget proposal from the White House is “work” as a listener.
There are details and nuances that need explaining. And sometimes, it’s hard to make it all fun. We all try our best to bring levity, have fun, and maybe a hint (or more) of sarcasm, but some of the bigger issues, at least as of late, often have their limits on how far to push.
On top of that, Ukraine was entering its fifth week, and the story is winding down from the standpoint of American public opinion. And Biden is Biden. He’s old. He’s boring. And beating him up on a daily basis is repetitive and can only carry you so far.
But Will Smith punching Chris Rock in what will now be the most memorable moment in Oscars history? Gold.
Everyone can have an opinion. Who’s at fault? Should Chris Rock have cracked the bald joke about Jada Pinkett Smith? Should Smith really have walked up on stage (moments after he laughed at the joke) and slapped Rock in the face? Why didn’t Jada stop Will as he walked up on stage? Heck, was it even real, or was it staged?!
It was a fun, easy-to-understand, and universally debatable topic that didn’t fall along with any type of partisan political lines. It’s one of the incredibly rare cultural topics (other than sports) where it wasn’t about conservative Americans taking one side and liberal Americans taking another side. It was a mish-mosh of opinion, reaction, and debate, with no right or wrong answer.
And as a host doing four hours per day of talk radio: It was damn refreshing.
We’ve all likely gotten legs out of this story in some capacity this week, if nothing else, to break up the monotony of the news cycle and give our audience something different to talk and think about. But even this story has waned as the week has progressed.
And I never thought I’d say this, but I don’t want a storyline from the Oscars to end. I want more twists and turns, more he-says, she-says allegations. I want just enough to keep it in the rotation for as long as we can milk it.
Yes, I’m grateful for The Oscars. At least for this year.
Pete Mundo is a weekly columnist for Barrett Media, and the morning show host and program director for KCMO in Kansas City. Previously, he was a fill-in host nationally on FOX News Radio and CBS Sports Radio, while anchoring for WFAN, WCBS News Radio 880, and Bloomberg Radio. Pete was also the sports and news director for Omni Media Group at K-1O1/Z-92 in Woodward, Oklahoma. He’s also the owner of the Big 12-focused digital media outlet Heartland College Sports. To interact, find him on Twitter @PeteMundo.
