Will laughed because he was "acting" and he's a bad actor. That "joke" wasn't worth a laugh. He could have also been a bit nervous knowing what he was getting ready to do: engage in a put on publicity stunt to draw eyeballs. No, just yelling out something about a medical condition would not have drawn 1/100th of the attention. He almost didn't sell it, which is why he started yelling some bullshit he probably heard some other real tough guy say.
And he isn't risking anything, his career is set. He will pay no price, the Academy is just posturing. He will be known as the man who saved the Oscars. So that is what he has to gain from it. He got the eyeballs, and that is really all that matters. The controversy blows over in a week and people remember the slap and think Will was justified and the Oscars is back and the rest (violence and the laughing at and glorification thereof by the hypocrites who preach otherwise) is forgotten because it doesn't fit the narrative.
Will comes out on top, bigger and better.
Those are all good points.
Cursing would have probably still gotten 10M views though. And not come at anywhere near the risk. Or he could have gone up to Chris, screamed and swore in his face, and threatened an altercation, and gone back to his seat - that would have probably gotten 50M views and accomplished the same thing.
Who would need to be in on it for it to be fake? Why wasn't the feed cut? Would the people in charge be given specific instructions for it to be fake?
The more people in on a conspiracy/hoax/bit, the more likely it would be to fall apart.
So that's why I lean to real.
I still go back to this:
Why would Jada stay in character, but Will laugh? It should have been easy for him not to laugh. And he laughed naturally - and a lot. Whereas Jada started with a smile that quickly turned.
As for other people who said Chris stuck his head out, and had his hands behind his back - he did that the whole time under the bright lights.
Hence my conclusion is that it is real.
Or these were VERY subtle and VERY real performances. But I guess Will has a lot of practice acting like a cuck.