Footy clubs and fans have a field day with Will Smith memes

Chris Rock’s face would still have been stinging from the slap he received from Will Smith at the Oscars when Aussie footy clubs and fans took to social media to post memes about the incredible incident.

Smith won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Richard Williams, the determined father who raised tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams, in King Richard. 

But not before he stormed the stage and slapped Chris Rock in the face after he made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. 

In his acceptance speech, Smith made an emotional defence of hitting Rock for his comments about Pinkett Smith’s hair, as she suffers from alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss. 

The poor old Wests Tigers bore the brunt of quick-witted fans who turned the Smith vs Rock slapdown as the perfect meme to roast the battling NRL club after its 0-3 to start to the season.

Wests Tigers fans were quick to turn the Smith slap incident into a meme after their club started the 2022 NRL season with a 0-3 record

Fans didn’t miss long-suffering Bulldogs fans either, who are hoping for better days in 2022 after years of miserable performances. 

Newcastle forward Mitch Barnett certainly didn’t miss Panthers player Chris Smith on the weekend when he collected the second-rower with an elbow in their NRL clash on the weekend at Bathurst. 

Now the NRL judiciary is likely to come down hard on him, like a Will Smith open palm raining down fury on the face of Chris Rock.

Barnett will have to face the NRL judiciary for his hit on Penrith Panthers backrower Chris Smith – giving fans another avenue to crack jokes about the Oscars meltdown

NRL referees always attract the ire of supporters on losing teams and Gold Coast fans are no exception after the five-tackle set incident on the weekend they believe cost them the game [not the 22-point lead they coughed up].

Even NRL icon and current Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould chimed in when asked for his take on who would win a fight between Smith and Rock. 

While plenty of the memes were witty, some sailed wide of the mark. Points to this effort for trying, but while Chad Townsend has had a solid start to the year with his new club the Cowboys we don’t quite get the reference to Ponga. Is it because Ponga turned his back on the Cowboys to sign a multi-year deal with Newcastle in 2018? 

Not all of the memes were negative. SEN Radio seized the opportunity to use the Smith v Rock incident to clap back at detractors of new Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell following their 2-0 start to the AFL season.