Subha Roy
Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, and YouTube viewers haven’t stopped slapping the play button since?
The Slap-related videos dominated YouTube’s trending tab in the days following Oscar Sunday. The channel atop that feed is The Guardian’s official home, which hit the jackpot by uploading footage of the incident. That clip was so popular that the British newspaper broke several viewership records set by MrBeast last year.
MrBeast received 42.6 million views in a single day last November after debuting his recreation of the hit Netflix series Squid Game. At the time, the only videos with more views on YouTube in a 24-hour period were music videos, movie trailers, or previous episodes of YouTube Rewind.
Not any longer. Though ABC quickly pulled the plug when Smith and Rock began cursing at each other, some international feeds remained uncensored. The Guardian posted the unedited perspective on its YouTube channel, and viewers devoured it.
The Guardian’s 90-second YouTube video of the smack is already breaking records.
With over 1 million views in just over 24 hours, this video has led to YouTube’s trending charts.
According to Dexerto, the Guardian video received over 48 million views in just 16 hours. That was more than enough to break MrBeast’s one-day record, and it will most likely beat the Squid Game recreation to 100 million views as well. MrBeast took about four days to reach that milestone, whereas The Guardian’s clip has more than 73 million views in less than two days.
It’s not surprising that this video is breaking records; after all, the reason YouTube was created in the first place was to provide access to this type of content. Chad Hurley, the company’s co-founder, was inspired to create a video hosting platform after being unable to find footage of Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl nip slip on the internet.
That and this moment have a lot in common. In both cases, viewers were eager to see another version of a network TV moment that had been altered by real-life quick cuts. Both incidents resulted in approximately one million billion hot takes.
Regardless of how many records The Guardian eventually claims, this video will go down as the most-watched slap in YouTube history. Davie504 apologizes to Logan Paul and “How can she slap!” Will Smith has all of them beat.
As of Tuesday morning, Will Smith’s smack had racked up 69 million views after breaking the previous record of 50 million clicks in one day.
MrBeast still hasn’t responded to the fact that he was beaten barely four months after receiving the honor.
Late-night drama on Sunday has only just begun.
In spite of the fight, the King Richard nominee won the Best Actor award at the end of the night.
Insiders, on the other hand, claim that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is considering removing Smith from the prize because of his on-stage assault.
After the ceremony, the Academy tweeted, “The Academy does not condone violence of any form.”
On Monday, an Academy representative said, “The Academy strongly condemns the acts of Mr. Smith at last night’s show.”
This incident has been subject to an official investigation that is being conducted in accordance with the company’s bylaws, standards of conduct, and California law.
According to Whoopi Golberg, who serves as the Governor of the Academy’s Actors branch, the rumors are not true after all.
Sunny Hostin, Whoopi’s co-host, said she was “surprised [Will] wasn’t escorted out,” and wondered if his Oscar would be revoked.
“We’re not going to take that Oscar away from him,” Whoopi replied.
That’s all…
