Sunday (April 3) in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand, Trevor Noah returned as the Grammy Awards host after first emceeing the show in 2021.
The 64th annual Grammy Awards took place just one week after the 2022 Oscars, which made headlines primarily for the unscripted incident where Will Smith, prior to winning best actor, slapped host Chris Rock in the face for making a joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia. The temptation to reference the water cooler topic of the week proved too great for Grammy host Noah, who nearly made it through his monologue without mentioning The Slap. But then at the last minute, he went there.
Describing the events of the night to come, Noah promised that “this is a concert where we’re giving out awards” and assured viewers that “we’re gonna be keeping people’s names out of our mouths”; following the slap, Smith twice yelled at Rock from the audience to “keep my wife’s name out of your f—king mouth.”
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Questlove also made reference to Will Smith’s Oscars slap while presenting song of the year. “I’m gonna present this award and I trust you people stay 500 feet away from me,” he said, adding, “Just playing.” Just a week ago, Questlove won the best documentary feature Academy Award for his Summer of Soul documentary; his acceptance speech immediately followed the Will Smith/Chris Rock incident, which naturally overshadowed The Roots’ drummer’s moment in the Oscars broadcast.
Additionally, the Daily Show host joked about House of Gucci stars Lady Gaga and Jared Leto both being present at the ceremony: “It’s not a full house of Gucci, more like an apartment of Gucci. An AirBnB of Gucci.” He also described the Grammy-nominated Justin Bieber and Giveon collab “Peaches” as “the best thing to peaches since that Timothée Chalamet movie.” If you’re not sure what that refers to, just Google “Call Me By Your Name peach” — but for the love of God, don’t do it on a work computer.