Trevor Noah kicks off Grammys with a quip about Will Smith’s Oscars slap

Grammys host Trevor Noah kicked kicked off Sunday’s present with loads of lighthearted quips about music’s largest stars — and an allusion to Will Smith’s notorious Oscars outburst.

After an electrical efficiency from Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars of Silk Sonic at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Backyard Enviornment, the comic delivered a gap monologue peppered with materials name-checking everybody from Olivia Rodrigo to BTS.

“It is a social gathering,” Noah mentioned whereas meandering by way of the viewers. “Everybody’s hanging out. … We’re in Vegas. … Persons are doing pictures. I imply, final yr folks have been doing pictures, however it was extra Moderna and Pfizer. This time we’re again within the combine.”

Then got here the oblique reference to final week’s Academy Awards, throughout which Smith slapped Chris Rock within the face and twice yelled, “Preserve my spouse’s identify out your f— mouth!”

“We’re going to be listening to some music, we’re going to be dancing, we’re going to be singing, we’re going to be holding folks’s names out of our mouths and we’re going to be giving out awards all all through the night time,” Noah joked.

“So let’s get straight into it.”

The “Each day Present” host’s dig comes days after Smith resigned from the movie academy and repeatedly apologized for hanging Rock in response to a joke the comedian made about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair. On the Oscars ceremony, Smith additionally received an award for his lead efficiency in “King Richard.”

“I betrayed the belief of the Academy,” Smith wrote in his resignation letter. “I disadvantaged different nominees and winners of their alternative to have fun and be celebrated for his or her extraordinary work. I’m heartbroken.”

Main as much as the 2022 Grammy Awards, jazz musician Jon Batiste scored probably the most nominations with 11 — together with nods for file of the yr, R&B album and album of the yr. Different artists vying for the highest prize are Tony Bennett and Woman Gaga, Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Kanye West.

“Each single individual you’ll be able to think about is right here,” Noah mentioned on the high of the present. “I Noticed Olivia Rodrigo myself. She was getting carded, and she or he needed to present a bouncer her precise driver’s license. It was, like, historical past folks!

“Oh, and what else I noticed? I noticed Nas standing subsequent to Lil Nas X. Plot twist: Lil Nas is definitely taller. They don’t inform you this.”

The entire album of the yr nominees — besides West, Doja Cat, Swift and Bennett — are set to carry out in the course of the Grammys telecast on CBS. The efficiency roster additionally consists of BTS, Silk Sonic, J Balvin and John Legend.

Instances intern Kai Grady contributed to this report.