Nats mock Labour with Will Smith memes

National Party leader Christopher Luxon has spoken out after his party and some of his MPs shared memes based on Will Smith's assault of Chris Rock during the 2022 Oscars.

Luxon said today he was aware of the memes being posted, and it was inappropriate for MPs to share the images.

"I was pleased to hear that they were taken down within 20 minutes," he said.

Luxon said the National Party did not condone any type of violence and told the Herald he had conversations with MPs who shared the meme.

"We will make mistakes ... we should front up when we see it," he said.

The National Party's official account and at least one of its own MPs posted memes based on the now infamous Will Smith Oscars slap before swiftly deleting them yesterday.

The images, which paired captions critical of the Labour Government and the Prime Minister with photos of Smith hitting Rock, were posted yesterday as many around the world leapt on the opportunity to make capital from the incident.

One version was posted to the National Party's official Facebook account and labelled Chris Rock as "Hardworking Kiwis" while showing Will Smith as "Labour's cost of living crisis".

Another meme was also shared by the unsanctioned National Party's Meme Working Group page on Facebook.

It showed Will Smith as "Luxon" and Chris Rock as "Labour's poll numbers".

One comment on the Working Group page suggested the meme should be "More like JA ... 'I reject the premise of that question'," in reference to Jacinda Ardern's technique of batting away questions.

That was echoed by MP Simon O'Connor, who posted that meme to his social media before also deleting it.