Tony Hinchcliffe has hit back at Chelsea Handler’s criticism of her “racist” joke during Kevin Hart’s Netflix roast earlier this month, labeling her a “ct.”
“It’s very funny because some news articles say I was excited about Chelsea Handler, but that’s not what happened at all,” Hinchcliffe said on Monday’s episode of the “Kill Tony” podcast. “I can’t believe anything I see or read on the news anymore. I have to see it with my own eyes.”
“She had a little bit of a bad attitude, I’ll tell you, she just kept coming at me,” he continued, adding that the writers of Hart’s roast “just didn’t do her justice.”
Hinchcliffe recalled: “Fun fact: The only time the teleprompter went off was during the set, but it gave Chelsea Handler a lot of opportunities to remember what she looks like and where her life is, because that’s what she was waiting for.”
“When Chelsea kept coming at me, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to fuck this bitch,'” he added.
Hinchcliffe’s comments came shortly after Handler, 51, called both he and roast MC Shane Gillis “racists” and “bigots” during an appearance on the podcast Deon Cole’s Funny Knowing You on May 20.
“I knew enough about Tony and Shane. They’re racist, bigots, sexist,” the “Chelsea Handler Show” star said.
“I don’t think that joke is funny,” she continued, adding in a clever twist from Gillis about Hart’s height, joking that the 46-year-old is so short that “I’d have to lynch him out of a bonsai tree.”
“Lynching a black person is not a joke,” Handler insisted. “It’s worse than rape.”
Gillis then returned the jab in response to Handler’s comments, telling Page Six through her agent, “This is a big moment for Chelsea. I’m glad she took advantage of the opportunity. Good for her. We’re all rooting for her. Anyway, come see us at the Philadelphia football stadium on July 17th.”
Ms Handler also took issue with Ms Hinchcliffe’s joke about the death of Sheryl Underwood’s late husband, who died by suicide in 1990, but insisted she “knew” the roast would create a “terrible atmosphere”.
While Underwood was seen laughing at Hinchecliffe’s jokes during the roast, the comedian later reflected on Entertainment Tonight about the jab, which referred to her late husband, and said it was in “bad taste.”
However, the jokes that Underwood felt went too far were Hinchcliffe’s joke about George Floyd, in which he said Floyd was “looking at all of us and laughing so hard I can’t breathe,” and Gillis’ joke about lynching.
“I think people should be angry, like the George Floyd joke or the bonsai joke or whatever,” Underwood said.
She continued: “I want to know what’s going on in your brain that makes you think this is okay.”
“I personally said to Tony Hinchcliffe, ‘We’ve got to do a deal with the Floyd family, and they’ll cooperate,'” she added. “I’m talking about someone’s relative. It’s not that the jokes aren’t well written, but this generation of roasts and comics do things that most people would consider to be in poor taste, but still make you laugh.”
Hart also gave his two cents on the matter, telling “The Breakfast Club” on Tuesday that he didn’t feel the George Floyd joke was “in good taste” “for our culture, for our audience.”
“But the viewers who watch the roast, if they’re watching the roast, they understand why they’re doing it,” he explained. “I see why racial humor is a hot topic. I wasn’t shocked.”
