Eddie Murphy has brought The Slap into 2023. In an acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award at tonight’s Golden Globes ceremony, the household name gave a few tips to industry newbies. “I want to let you know that there is a definitive blueprint that you can follow to achieve success, prosperity, longevity, and piece of mind,” he began. “It’s a blueprint, and I’ve followed it my whole career. It’s very simple. There’s three things: Pay your taxes, mind your business, and keep Will Smith’s wife’s name out your f–cking mouth.” (The expletive was bleeped out, but we all know what he said.) Smith gave that last tip to Chris Rock after famously slapping the comedian at the 2022 Oscars over a joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia. The Slap Heard Around the World launched a thousand think pieces and triggered exhausting discourse for weeks. Let’s hope that Murphy, who appeared to use this opportunity to express support for Smith (?), didn’t open a round of Slap Discourse Part 133197. Let’s let the New Year find its own version of The Slap, a new drama for us to obsess over. Maybe at this year’s Oscars?
