Stephen Colbert obnoxiously brings back the Will Smith slap jokes on The Late Show

Just when we thought we were done with all of the Will Smith/Chris Rock jokes! Come on, Stephen Colbert, you're better than this! Nah, I'm not actually mad. But I think I speak for most people when I say that these jokes haven't been funny in a long time.

Fortunately, Colbert's "Meanwhile..." segment on The Late Show last night wasn't all dull. The Emmy Award-winning host took a few moments to poke fun at baby name trends of 2024, the new Spicy Dill Pickle Goldfish, and he also weighed in on the "hot rodent men" trend, keeping it real against such a silly concept.

This week on The Late Show, Colbert was joined by very exciting guests Viggo Mortensen (who wore an awesome Lord of the Rings shirt!), Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Olivia Cooke, and others, along with a great performance from Hozier. Of course, Colbert also weighed in on the upcoming election this week, discussing Joe Biden's visit to France and a recent appearance from Donald Trump on Fox News. In the most recent "Meanwhile..." segment, the acclaimed host weighed in on what's popular this week, hitting on big events that are generating buzz.

The Will Smith slap jokes are old, aren't they, Colbert?

For the Will Smith slap joke, you can skip to the 2:10 mark in the video below, where Colbert begins talking about The World's 50 Best Restaurants awards, which took place on Wednesday at the Wynn in Las Vegas. A Mediterranean seafood restaurant located in Barcelona, Spain called Disfrutar won the top spot, at the ceremony which Colbert described as "the Oscars of global fine dining."

"It was a wonderful evening until Will Smith slapped Chris Rock," Colbert told the audience, with a photo of the infamous slap scene going up on the screen with chef uniforms edited onto them. Colbert shook his head and told his viewers he did not know why before moving on to his next joke. Those watching in the audience bursted out laughing at the Will Smith/Chris Rock mention, but, let's be real, we know there are cue cards telling them to laugh when necessary!

For those who don't remember the Will Smith slap fiasco — or if you simply blocked it from your mind — it happened at the 94th Academy Awards in March 2022, in which Rock served as the host. After making a joke in poor taste about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith walked onstage and slapped Rock across the face. The moment, unsurprisingly, went completely viral, and was talked about in nauseam for a long time. Just about every comedian made a joke about it, and it got very, very old.

Elsewhere in Colbert's "Meanwhile..." segment, the host made a joke about the name Chani surging in popularity this year because of the release of Dune: Part Two, telling his viewers that there aren't as many babies named "anus-faced sandworm." He also touched on the Daily Mail's ridiculous (yet a little funny) article that went up this month about "hot rodent men," which includes famous actors like Barry Keoghan, Kieran Culkin, and Jeremy Allen White.

“Yes, yes, Jeremy Allen White has such unusual features," Colbert joked, "like abs where his stomach should be and eyes like bottomless wells of cleansing light. You know, rodents." He hit the nail on the head with that one!

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert is not new tonight, Friday, June 7, but he'll be back with new episodes next week, starting with guests Senator Cory Booker and Billie Eilish on Monday, June 10.