Grammys host Trevor Noah couldn’t resist a nod to the incident at last week’s Oscars as he got the music ceremony underway on Sunday night.
It’s now been a week since Will Smith made headlines when he came on stage at the Academy Awards after Chris Rock made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair.
After slapping the comedian, Will returned to his seat and urged him to “keep my wife’s fucking name out of your mouth”.
In the past, Jada has spoken candidly about her experiences of alopecia, and how her hair loss inspired her to shave her hair last year.
Kicking off the Grammys at the weekend, Trevor teased what viewers should expect from the ceremony, before alluding to the Oscars debacle.
Hinting he was hoping for a more scandal-free night at the Grammys, the talk show host joked: “Don’t even think of this as an award show. It’s a concert where we are giving out awards.
“We’re going to be listening to music, we’re going to be dancing, we’re going to be singing, we’re going to be keeping people’s names out of our mouths and we’re going to be giving out awards all night. So let’s get straight into it.”
The comment was met with a round of applause from the A-listers in attendance, some of whom – including Billie Eilish, Tiffany Haddish, Lady Gaga and H.E.R. – were also present on Oscars night.
Minutes after his incident at the Oscars, Will Smith was announced as the recipient of the Best Actor prize for his performance in the film King Richard.
He took the opportunity to apologise to the Academy and his fellow nominees during his acceptance speech, later saying sorry to Chris Rock in a statement shared on his Instagram page.
Since then, it was announced that Will had resigned as a member of the Academy, who have said they are investigating the incident.