Will Smith surprises fans with ‘unexpected’ Oscars joke

Will Smith surprised fans by posting a new video to his TikTok account.

The actor has spent much of the last year coping with the fallout from the 2022 Oscar Awards, during which he slapped host Chris Rock for a poorly timed joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Smith won his first Academy Award moments afterward.

Smith has steadily returned to releasing light-hearted videos after a several-month break from social media.

On Monday (20 February), he shared a video with his fans that surprised them with its honesty.

A request from TikTok user @missmoneyworking frames the video, in which she recounts an experiment in which people ask inanimate objects what they think of them.

“You will get an answer in your mind from your intuition,” she explains, suggesting that watching could ask a pen or their car its opinion, and then come to their own conclusion from the impression the items give off.

Smith is shown responding to her statements in tandem with @missmoneyworking’s video. He reaches off-camera and brings his Oscar statuette into the screen after thinking about an object he might ask for a read on himself.

The clip ends as he begins to ask Oscar a question.

A few fans saw the clip as a light reference to the fight at last year’s Academy Awards, with the joke based on the variety of things the Oscar might “say” to Smith and a reminder of his accomplishment.

Fans have been eager in sharing their delight at the gag since it was posted.

Actor Raven-Symoné replied with a grinning emoji, while another follower wrote: “This has got to be the hardest flex in 2023.”

“I wasn’t expecting this,” added another with a laughing face emoji.

Elsewhere, one Twitter user wrote that the clip was “the single funniest thing I’ve seen all month” to which someone else affirmed: “Well played, Smith.”

The Oscars will be placed on March 12th this year. The complete list of nominees may be seen here.