Kevin Hart is defending Tony Hinchliffe’s roast joke that Chelsea Handler branded “racist”.
In “The Roast of Kevin Hart,” which aired on Netflix earlier this month, Hinchliffe, who is white, told the Times, “The black community is so proud of you. Right now, George Floyd is looking up at all of us and laughing until he can’t breathe.”
The killing of Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in May 2020 sparked widespread outrage and renewed awareness of the ongoing racial crisis in the United States.
While many viewers were shocked and offended by this remark, Hart was not.
“This wasn’t a classy joke on our culture or our viewers, but for the viewers watching the roasting, if you watch the roasting, you understand why they’re doing it,” the 46-year-old explained to Charlamagne the God and Lauren LoRosa on Tuesday’s “The Breakfast Club.”
“I understand why racial humor is on the table. I wasn’t shocked. Look at the Tom Brady stuff, for example. That’s what they do. It happens every year when they do roasts. It’s not new. This is not new. It’s not a new agenda. It’s not a new approach to comedy.”
Charlamagne asked Hart if he thought Hinchcliffe, 41, “went too far when he made a joke about George Floyd,” to which Hinchcliffe replied: “That’s Tony Hinchcliffe. I expect less than that, and I don’t expect anything more.”
He agreed with Charlamagne’s view that “overreach is the point,” elaborating, “That’s why you’re there.”
Hart even claimed that Hinchliffe had one of the “best sets” of the night, and pointed out that he was not the only comedian to make light of certain deaths, as Pete Davidson joked about assassinated right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
“For example, do I tell jokes like that? No. But do I understand why jokes like that are told? Yes,” Hart argued. “Like, I’m not looking at Pete’s insanity. I’m not looking at Tony’s insanity. I mean, that’s how I know what you’re going to do. I know your style of comedy.”
The married father of four – whose past affair was a topic of conversation throughout the evening – insisted he was “unaffected by attempts at humor” and said he had learned the art of “moving on” when something or someone didn’t seem funny.
“I don’t understand why we’re on a hill and it’s such a big issue of, ‘They’re attacking the culture.’ It doesn’t have to be that way. Literally, either you’re a fan of this level of content or you’re not,” Hart said.
He also made sure to point out that he wasn’t the one who joked about Floyd and called for him to be “removed” from the story.
“If you’re upset that the night ended, that’s a different story. That’s not something I can do. This is a piece of work. It’s a live piece,” he told Charlamagne and LoRosa.
“I’m not going to compromise live production for any reaction. What do you want me to do? Drag him out. Do you want me to fight after that? … That’s not what I agreed to. That’s not the job at hand. The job at hand is to make the roast a success, and I did that.”
But Handler, who delivered his own set during the roast, slammed Hinchliffe and fellow white comedian Shane Gillis’ controversial set and called for a different opinion.
“They’re racist. They’re bigots. They’re sexists,” the 51-year-old claimed on Deon Cole’s Funny Knowing You podcast last week, insisting the comedian “could get away with not being gross.”
Sheryl Underwood, who also served a set during the roast, later told “Entertainment Tonight” that she understood why so many people were “offended” by some of Mr. Hinchliffe and Mr. Gillis’ jokes.
“I want to know what’s going on in your brain that says this is okay?” She then revealed that she told Hinchcliffe: “We have to deal with the Floyd family, and they backed off. You’re talking about someone’s relative.”
Meanwhile, “Saturday Night Live” star Michael Che (who was scheduled to perform a set during the roast but ultimately pulled out at the last minute) criticized the show for similar reasons.
