Until Will Smith threw the punch heard around the world, the 2022 Oscars was shaping up to be cliché-packed, thrill-deficient snooze. An awkward three-way opening monologue by hosts Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall had been loaded with uncomfortable silences and nervous laughter, with the occasional joke wandering through like a reluctant guest nervously looking for the exit.

There had been the bizarre sight of skate-board veteran Tony Hawks and snowboarder Shaun White introducing a James Bond tribute. Beyoncé had kicked off the evening with a musical performance in which she threw a death stare at the camera while dressed as tennis ball (they should have had her in the wings protecting Chris Rock). It was enough to make viewers pine for the sheer, once-off weirdness of last year’s pandemic Oscars, broadcast from the middle of a Los Angeles railway station.

But then Chris Rock, introducing Best Documentary, cracked a gag about Jada Pinkett Smith looking like “GI Jane” – Smith had shaved her hair owing to her hair loss from alopecia – and up strode her husband Smith from the lounge-like area where nominees were corralled close to the stage.

And suddenly a snoozy, inessential Oscars had turned into a riveting train-wreck. You could hear the “thwack” as Smith’s hand connected with Rock’s face (how much larger than the diminutive Rock, the actor suddenly looked). “Keep my wife’s name out your f______ mouth,” Smith shouted as he retook his seat. Rock somehow carried on though clearly in shock. Someone should give him an Oscar for Best Reading from Teleprompter while Reeling from Assault.

This was an all-time Oscars highlight/lowlight – a talking point for the ages that will surely impact profoundly on the careers of both Smith and Rock. Up to that moment, though, the awards had been a glossy shambles, glued together with Hollywood cheese and chutzpah yet lacking any momentum or sense of a unifying theme.