It was the slap heard around the world.
Ever since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage at the Oscars, the internet has been in a frenzy.
These Will Smith memes are killing me pic.twitter.com/l2XfUaUDD1— J-Cloud\u2601\ufe0f (@J-Cloud\u2601\ufe0f) 1648448426
But memes aren't the only thing coming out of the incident. As ticket sale website, TickPick, revealed, via Twitter,
"We sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than we did in the past month combined."
We sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than we did in the past month combined.— TickPick (@TickPick) 1648478347
Previously priced at $46, tickets for shows on Rock's upcoming comedy tour have skyrocketed to upwards of $503 on various resale websites. Rock currently has thirty eight shows scheduled, hitting cities such as Las Vegas, Oakland, Seattle, New York, and Chicago.
The "Ego Death World Tour" will also take Rock to Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, proving the magnitude of the infamous slap. Since the Oscars, 88% of of Rock's ticket sales on the site came through.
Rock has yet to make a public statement about the slap, which occurred while the comedian was presenting at the Academy Awards. After he made an insensitive joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's bald head (hair loss being a result of an autoimmune condition), Will Smith walked onstage and slapped him.
Smith returned to his seat, where he twice told Rock,
"Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth."
Smith won Best Actor ten minutes later, and used his speech to apologize to the Academy and his fellow nominees, but not Rock. He then released an apology to Instagram Monday night where he called his behavior "unacceptable and inexcusable"
The Academy said Monday that it "condemns" Smith's actions at the Oscars and is launching a formal review into his conduct.