On Sunday night, Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel let loose during the ceremony by making more than a joke about Will Smith’s slap in the face. On the other hand, if it had been fair to him, he would have gone even further.
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In an interview with Rolling Stone, the gala’s producer Molly McNearney (who is also Kimmel’s wife) explained that the production decided that the incident shouldn’t take up too much space.
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“We didn’t want the gala to be too reminiscent of last year’s. I can’t tell you how many Will Smith jokes we’ve had to cut.”
McNearney thinks jokes that have evaded censorship are quite tasteful. “Obviously a lot of the jokes that were cut were a lot tougher, but I don’t think it was up to us to make them. It belongs to Chris Rock.”
“We would rather laugh at the reaction to the incident than at the incident. I think we’re all still a little shocked to have witnessed an act of violence without anyone intervening.