Aussie author’s bizarre pre-Oscars prediction

Hours before Will Smith’s slap rocked Hollywood, the Australian author of beloved novel ‘The Slap’ penned an eerie article about the Oscars.

As Will Smith’s Oscars slap continues to reverberate across the world, shrewd Twitter users have brought to attention a truly bizarre Aussie link to the saga.

Christos Tsiolkas, the Australian author of 2008 novel The Slap — which followed the story of how a man slapping a child he wasn’t related to sent shockwaves through a community — had mused in a lengthy op-ed for The Saturday Paper that the Oscars had become “boring” compared with Hollywood controversies of the past.

His piece, titled ‘An elegy for the once-great Oscars’, published online on Sunday, opened with the line: “Does anyone really care about the Oscars anymore?”

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Will Smith: "Hold my beer". Picture: Instagram.

Recalling nights watching the ceremony with his family as teenager, he wrote: “It’s been a long time since the ceremony has been screened on prime-time in Australia. The timeslot keeps getting shunted, and large chunks of the awards are truncated to make room for ads.

“The assumption is that we are all watching it streamed. On the phone or on the laptop … The sense of occasion is diminished. The very form is outdated.”

Tsiolkas authored celebrated 2008 novel The Slap.

A mere two days later, Will Smith storming the Dolby Theatre stage and slapping comedian Chris Rock square in the face over a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith has become — and will likely continue to be — one of the most talked-about pop culture moments in history.

It was the instantaneous nature of the live stream that made room for such an uproarious reaction, with news outlets, fans and other A-listers weighing in on the controversy as it happened.

The irony was not lost on one Twitter user, who shared a link to the article with a stunned caption.

The moment Will Smith stormed the Oscars stage and slapped Chris Rock was a moment you simply could not write. Picture: AFP.

Others echoed the sentiment, with another social media user pointing out the fact that Australia was also one of the only countries with access to the uncensored Oscars broadcast, F-bombs and all.

One particular paragraph was highlighted by another viewer, in which Tsiolkas opined that “there is something distasteful in filmmakers slapping each other’s backs”, and that, “Black lives seemingly don’t matter that much south of Bel Air,” in reference to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Smith’s nomination while deploring the Academy’s lack of diversity.

Actually cannot believe this pic.twitter.com/sUIyC0rS1p

— will kelly (@_wkelly_) March 28, 2022

truly what a time to be alive pic.twitter.com/gHB9QEYUfE

— Naaman Zhou (@naamanzhou) March 28, 2022

The irony of The Slap author Christos Tsiolkas writing this BEFORE the Oscar slap -
‘Oscars are outdated and have lost their gloss – even today’s controversies are boring.’
An elegy for the once-great Oscars | The Saturday Paper https://t.co/KD7G4Bn6Cu

— the rural juror (@sharitags) March 28, 2022

Elsewhere in Tsiolkas’ eerie pre-Oscars take, he wrote that, “comperes now are superfluous to the proceedings and the acceptance speeches are a form of speed-reading”.

Of course, we now know Chris Rock’s short stint on the stage will be forever immortalised as a slice of Oscars history, and Smith’s emotionally-charged five-minute speech accepting the award for Best Actor is footage that will be dissected for years to come.

“Even the controversies have become boring,” Tsiolkas added in lines that you can’t help but read with a laugh.

“The bookies have Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog as the frontrunner but my gut tells me Belfast will get the gong. It is sentimental and it’s slick, and maybe some things about the Oscars will never change,” he wrote.

“It would be nice to be proved wrong.”

It’s safe to say he certainly was.

Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap.

Meanwhile, Tsiolkas’s op-ed wasn’t the only bizarre coincidence dredged up in light of Monday’s explosive controversy.

The last time Chris Rock made an Oscars joke about Jada Pinkett Smith in 2016, one viewer wrote in a now-viral tweet: “Will Smith has to punch Chris Rock in the face … He has no choice.”

Will Smith has to punch Chris Rock in the face .... He has no choice

— J A S O N (@_ja_s_on_) February 29, 2016

Meanwhile, Smith has today publicly apologised to Rock, posting a lengthy statement to Instagram.

“My behaviour at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable,” Smith wrote. “Jokes at my expense are a part of the job but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.

“I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be.

“There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”