Posted on Oct 22, 2026 UTC

As you may know, Dancing With the Stars has been in a bit of hot water in recent days, with professional dancer Val Chmerkovskiy being suspended for one episode after he made a controversial "joke" that appeared to suggest he wanted to slap one of the show’s judges, Carrie Ann Inaba.

For reference, Val is married to fellow professional dancer Jenna Johnson, whose celebrity dance partner is actor Harry Shum Jr. After their performance on Oct. 13, Carrie Ann criticized Jenna for including what she called an illegal lift in their samba routine.

At the time, Jenna graciously accepted Carrie Ann’s feedback, but Val was clearly unhappy. After defending Jenna in the comments of a TikTok video, he posted to his Instagram account: “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.”

Unsurprisingly, this was immediately interpreted to be a reference to the 2022 Oscars moment when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.…