This year's Academy Awards confirmed what we already knew – we've moved past the need for them.
As celebrities arrived on the red carpet, we saw plenty of great looks (and plenty of bad ones, too), PDA from Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, and a shirtless Timothee Chalamet. But nothing could prepare us for what would happen on the inside.
This year, the Academy Awards made the controversial decision to feature a handful of awards off-air, including best documentary short film, makeup and hairstyling, original score, film editing, animated short, and more.
After last year's ceremony had the lowest ratings yet, it seems as if the pressure was on to secure more views, which meant that eight categories weren't televised, and were instead awarded and handed out as guests were still arriving.
Fans of Dune were pretty mad about it, and took to Twitter to express their frustration, as the movie had won several awards before the stream even began.
However, the awards were still pretty tame, until Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith and "G.I. Jane 2" which dug at her alopecia.
The joke resulted in Will Smith walking up on the stage, and slapping the comedian across the face, before returning to his seat.
"Will Smith just slapped the shit out of me," he said, and Will yelled, "Keep my wife's name out of your f**king mouth," as a response.
Regardless of whether the joke was in poor taste or not, an adult man feeling the need to hurt someone during a televised ceremony that millions are watching feels a little strange.
Thankfully, the slap didn't hurt Rock too bad, and the ceremony literally continued as if nothing happened, because approximately 15 minutes later, Will Smith went on to win the "Best Actor" award for the movie King Richard and gave a speech about family, apologized to the Academy and Chris Rock, and talked about Richard Williams being a "was a fierce defender of his family." Yikes.
I didn't think that anything could produce more reactions than the 2019 Oscars, where the wrong winner for "Best Picture" was announced, but boy was I wrong.
To be completely honest, I haven't watched half of the movies nominated this year, and I don't really care about who won, which I feel is a sentiment echoed by most.
The red carpet is by far the most exciting part of the night, and the awards usually take a backseat – especially considering how the Academy has a history of refusing to recognize POC, women, and other minorities.
This year's ceremony was an outright mess, and Will Smith managed to overshadow his entire career leading up to his Oscar win by slapping a man for making a joke. I hope Jada brings him to the red table, to be honest.
There were of course some big things that deserved to be highlighted, such as this year's ceremony being the most accessible yet, with a separate ASL feed, a ramp, closed captions, and more.
We also saw a woman win the award for Best Director for the second year in a row, with Jane Campion taking home the award for The Power of the Dog, and the first deaf actor to win an Oscar, with Troy Kotsur receiving Best Supporting Actor for CODA.
But yeah, Will Smith decided to create a spectacle that completely erased anything else that happened on the night – as well as his own, previously respected image.
