Jimmy Kimmel: I ‘will beat the s–t’ out of anyone who tries Oscars slap

Jimmy Kimmel won’t be turning the other cheek at this year’s Oscars.

The late-night host and comedian, 55, will be hosting the ceremony for the third time this Sunday and he’s prepared to fight back if someone slaps him — unless, of course, that person is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

At last year’s show, Will Smith caused a stir when he smacked presenter Chris Rock onstage on live television over a joke Rock made about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Kimmel explained how he would handle someone ambushing the stage at this year’s event.

“If somebody comes up on the stage and slaps me?” Kimmel began.

“Well, I size them up, and, if I’m bigger than they are, I beat the s–t out of them on television. And if it’s the Rock, I run,” he joked.

The father of four then gave his take on if the slap heard around the world is “almost boring to joke about at this point.”

“Well, whatever I say about it, it’s going to have to be great, right?” Kimmel said. “Because so much has been said and there’s so much focus on it. I obviously don’t want to make the whole monologue about that, but it would be ridiculous not to mention it.”

The slap is not the comedian’s first Oscars scandal. Kimmel was famously at the helm of the 2017 ceremony when #envelopegate led to a major upset.

“La La Land” was mistakenly named the winner of Best Picture after Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway had been given the wrong category envelope. The drama “Moonlight” was the actual victor, with their win being announced halfway through the former’s acceptance speech.

Kimmel reflected on the mix-up: “It’s disappointing in a lot of ways. If you’re gonna be part of a f–kup, it might as well be the biggest f–kup ever. Being part of the second-biggest f–kup doesn’t carry as much cachet.”

He also addressed the slap in People earlier this month. “It’s still shocking that that happened,” he said.

“To see something like that happen outside of like ‘The Maury Povich Show‘ is shocking. And then for it to happen on the Oscars magnifies it by about a million times,” he noted.

He added, “I think it’s something that everybody regrets and that we will move past. One day it will be looked at in the same way as that guy running onstage naked is looked at: a weird moment that we all talked about and we hopefully learn from.”

Kimmel admitted he hasn’t spoken to the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” star yet, but he has talked to Rock about the incident.

The talk show emcee applauded Rock’s reaction, saying: “I mean, to be slapped in the face and to stay that cool is something that Chris should be proud of. Chris’ grandchildren, I hope, will still be proud of that when he’s dead and gone.”