Young Liberals slammed over ‘bloody disgraceful’ meme of Will Smith’s Oscars slap

The Young Liberals have been widely condemned after sharing a tasteless meme in the wake of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.

A tasteless meme whipped up in the wake of Will Smith’s Oscars slap has been widely condemned.

It took merely an hour for the Young Liberals to latch onto the extraordinary confrontation, which unfolded in front of a crowd of A-listers at the 94th Academy Awards in Hollywood on Sunday.

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face after the comedian made a derogatory joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair.

Once he’d returned to his seat, Smith shouted at Rock to “KEEP MY WIFE’S NAME OUT YOUR F**KING MOUTH”.

The Young Liberals took about an hour to use this moment for its own political messaging. Picture: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Trying to capitalise on the tredning topic, the Young Liberals posted a meme showing the moment after Smith’s hand whacked the side of Rock’s face.

The party attached the words, “hardworking Australians” across the comedian, who in that moment was thrust to the side from the impact of the strike.

Attached to Smith, who’s arm was outstretched from delivering the slap, it wrote, “Labor’s higher taxes”.

Young Liberals shared its sad use of the image to Twitter with the caption: “Labor can’t manage money, that’s why they come after yours”.

Labor can't manage money, that's why they come after yours. pic.twitter.com/Fimmp3qaO8

— Young Liberals 🇦🇺 (@YoungLibs) March 28, 2022

Will Smith shouted at Rock to: 'Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth'. Picture: ABC

The meme was poorly received on Twitter.

One person responded: “This might the fastest death of a meme in history, well done.”

Many applauded an edit of the graphic, which had the words: “Young liberals sh** posting” across Rock, and “Twitter” over Smith.

The Guardian political reporter Josh Butler re-posted the graphic and noted: “That sadly didn’t take long.”

Journalist Jenna Guillaume echoed the sentiment, saying the Young Liberals meme was evidence “we’ve reached peak bad in record time”.

Others highlighted why making light of an incident of blatant violence was problematic in itself.

You young Liberals should hang your heads in shame.....ffs.....using a scene of violence to put down the Labor Party....grow up. You disgust me.

— Als Patch aka Allan Campbell. Food Gardener. (@AlsPatch) March 28, 2022

Young liberals social media poster clearly thinks violence is the answer to everything.

— Brown Paper Bag (@PaperBundle) March 28, 2022

Had to fix up a tweet by the Young Liberals. Funny that they can't see reality. #auspol#ScottyFromPhotoOps#ScottyThePathologicalLiar#ScottyTheScumbaghttps://t.co/9zY51CRXTNpic.twitter.com/eaVBZiD2Xk

— Tom Flow (@TomFlowAu) March 28, 2022

“Making jokes of violence. Only the out of touch Young Liberals would do that,” one wrote.

Someone else argued such issues needed to be raised with the prime minister.

“They have just given members of the gallery a question to ask the PM about glorifying an act of violence broadcast on television for political purposes.”

“Only young liberals could see an opportunity to use an image of anger and physical violence to make a (poor) political point. Grow up and listen to the women around you,” another said.

“Ah, the young liberals. Never missing an opportunity to show us all how clever (out of touch) they are and remind us that they’re the future curse of this arrogant, ignorant country,” someone else wrote.

“Bloody disgraceful. I have actually complained about it,” another respondent said.