Oscar Viral: Twitter Flooded With Reactions When Will Smith Slaps Chris Rock

Will Smith all but hijacked the 94th Academy Awards. The actor who, shortly before he won the Oscar for Best Actor, punched and swore at presenter Chris Rock who made a joke about Will's wife, Jada Pinkett.

Soon after, a tearful Will Smith apologized in his emotional speech – although not directly to Chris Rock. "I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment, and I'm not crying for winning an award. It's not about winning an award for me. It's about being able to shine a light on all of the people," he said, "Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. Love will make you do crazy things."

Will Smith also revealed what fellow Best Actor nominee Denzel Washington told him in the commercial break after the altercation with Chris Rock. "Thank you, Dee. Denzel said a few minutes ago, 'At your highest moment, be careful, that's when the devil comes for you,'" Will Smith said.

Chris Rock enraged Will Smith by making a GI Jane joke about Jada Pinkett, referring to her shaved head – Jada suffers from alopecia. As she eye-rolled, Will went up on stage, slapped Chris, returned to his seat, and yelled out, "Keep my wife's name out of your f*****g mouth."

Chris Rock told the audience, "Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me. It was a G.I. Jane joke. That was the greatest night in the history of television."

Social media was confused about whether or not the altercation was a planned skit. It soon became clear that it wasn't, and reactions flooded social media platform Twitter.

Will Smith won his first Oscar after 2 previous nominations for Ali and The Pursuit Of Happyness. The big winners of this year's Oscars were CODA, which won Best Picture, and Dune, which won 6 awards.