- Kyle Chua
The Infamous Will Smith Slap Is Now an NFT Collection
To the surprise of no one, the infamous Will Smith slap at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony became a meme…and now an NFT collection.
The Will Smith Slap DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) has created and listed a total of 1,999 tokens of the much-talked-about incident, chopping it up to select screengrabs with accompanying meme-worthy captions.
As of writing, the collection lists 752 owners. They reportedly had an initial price of 0.003 ETH, which is equivalent to about US$10, making them relatively cheap compared to other NFTs featuring popular memes. Still, the initial hype surrounding the unscripted TV moment proved enough for SlapDAO to earn US$45,000 in a single day of selling the tokens. David Morris of Yahoo Finance points out that the amount falls in a sweet spot for a short con that won’t attract any attention from authorities.
The hype, however, is expected to die soon, resulting in the prices of the tokens going down until they’re practically worthless. Morris further notes that a lot of those who bought in likely did so as sort of a sarcastic and self-aware gag to poke fun and laugh at the incident. There’s also the possibility that the purchases were faked by the creators to drive up prices and make a quick buck.
Regardless, the collection is, to put it bluntly, tasteless, as Ian Dean of Creative Bloq puts it. It not only glorifies the incident that involves an act of violence but the memes themselves aren’t that creative or clever either – or at least the humour is not for everyone.
SlapDAO NFTs are still being traded in OpenSea right now, going for anywhere between US$7 to US$86.
It's worth noting that these projects aren't licensed and are in no way associated with Will Smith himself. They exist to capitalise on what's currently popular, so anyone who's thinking of buying a token should do so at their own risk.
For those unfamiliar, the so-called Slap Heard Round the World involved actor Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars after the latter joked about the former’s wife. As for NFTs, they continue to remain popular among art collectors, investors and artists alike.
NFT creators didn't wait long to ride on the coattails of the controversial Will Smith slap at the Oscars.
Just a day after the infamous incident, Will Smith Slap DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) listed 1,999 tokens that feature chopped up screengrabs of the so-called Slap Heard Round the World with accompanying meme-worthy captions.
SlapDAO NFTs are still being traded in OpenSea right now, going for anywhere between US$7 to US$86, but prices are expected to drop as the talk of the incident dies down.