He was wrongfully smack-used.
After Will Smith controversially slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, incensed social media watchdogs swarmed the verified Twitter timeline of Will Smith — a random Twitch gamer and podcaster with the same name as the Best Actor Academy Award winner for “King Richard.”
Now, Smith’s wrongfully accused digital doppelgänger has decided to troll those who thought he was the Oscar winner, racking up hundreds of thousands of likes on Twitter.
For those who’ve been living under a pop culture rock, the incident occurred after Smith, 53 (the actor) smacked the 57-year-old comic for cracking a divisive bald joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who’s been open about her ongoing struggle with alopecia.
Needless to say, Will Smith, a previously little-known gamer with a blue check mark, was quick to react to his celebrity counterpart’s smackdown, tweeting: “whelp.”
“I’m sorry if you’re offended,” added Smith in a follow-up Tweet.
The social media civilian even commented how the viral Oscars incident contrasted with the “In Memoriam” segment, writing: “Hopefully all anyone remembers at the end of the show is this inappropriately upbeat ‘In Memoriam’ segment.”
“Gonna keep tweeting through it,” Smith addedbefore retweeting a follower who had quipped “Everybody hates Chris.”
The comments came after an army of social media bozos mistook the gamer for the “Hancock” actor — despite the fact that he explicitly mentions that he’s “notthatwillsmith” on his Twitter bio.
“Bruh control ur anger issues,” tweeted one social media Sherlock Holmesto which a Smith defender replied“Bruh, learn to tweet the right person.”
Another Twitter sleuth wrote“I over react to stuff all the time. Just get asmon to host you and you’ll bounce back.”
Even legendary sports commentator Stephen A. Smith accidentally messaged civilian Will Smith on Twitter, writing: “Please tell me I didn’t see what I just saw. Somebody please tell me that @willsmith was joking and it was part of the show when he just smacked @chrisrock on National Television.”
“I’m begging y’all….please don’t tell me @willsmith would do something like that???” he added.
Commenters have since commiserated with Smith’s mistaken identity plight with one fan lamenting“RIP your mentions.”
One Twitter wit even purposefully at mentioned the wrong Chris Rock in jest, writing “@Chris_Rock I think you two need to hug this out.”
“I will when he apologizes to me personally,” replied Smithwho now boasts over 191,000 Twitter followers thanks to being confused with the “Pursuit of Happyness” star.
“Yea we really should,” chimed in the fake Chris Rock in question.
Smith has since clarified that he is not, in fact, the “Men In Black” actor.
“Real talk, I’m not the person you’re upset/happy with. I make podcasts and video games for a living,” he wrote. “At the risk of making people pissed off at me instead of that other guy, the world would be a better place if we stopped answering words with violence.”
