Kevin Hart Defends Himself and Tony Hinchcliffe After Backlash to George Floyd Joke at Roast: 'I Didn't Say it'

After weeks of backlash, Kevin Hart has finally broken his silence on the “racist” jokes told during Netflix’s roast in his honor.

via: EW

Kevin Hart is pushing back on any criticism of him for Tony Hinchcliffe's joke about the late George Floyd at the recent Netflix roast of Hart.

In a night full of wild NSFW jabs at the people onstage, Hinchcliffe took aim at Floyd, who was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, an incident that sparked an international movement against police violence under the Black Lives Matter banner. After previously making a Floyd joke at the 2024 roast of Tom Brady, Hinchcliffe returned to the topic by saying to Hart, “The Black community is so proud of you. Right now George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard that he can’t breathe.”

Following plenty of backlash, including from Floyd's family, Hart responded on Tuesday's episode of The Breakfast Club. The comedian said Hinchcliffe had "arguably the best set," but that the joke "wasn't tasteful to our culture," while acknowledging that "racial humor is on the table" at a roast. When asked if Hinchcliffe went too far, he replied, "It's Tony Hinchcliffe. I don't expect less, I don't expect more."

Hart continued, "Would I tell those jokes? No. But do I get why they are being told? Yes. I'm not looking at Tony crazy. I know what you're going to do, I know your style of comedy."

Michael Che previously called out the roast for hiring so many white writers for a celebration of the "most successful Black comic in the last 10 years." And Chelsea Handler, who participated in the event, said Hinchcliffe and Shane Gillis' jokes about race were "gross" and that they are both "racist" and "bigots."

In his discussion on The Breakfast Club, Hart reminded the hosts that he attended the funeral for Floyd and "made sure the family felt supported." He also revealed that after the roast, he connected with former NBA player Stephen Jackson, who was a close friend of Floyd. When told that he should have led with that information, Hart quickly retorted, "I don't need to prove to people that I give a f---."

"Whatever the headlines or dialogue, remove me from it — I didn't say it," declared Hart, who pointed out that jokes were made about his dead parents. "Like, what do you want me to do? Drag him off? Fight afterwards? That's not the job at hand. The job was to produce a successful roast, which I did.... I don't understand why we stand on a hill and it becomes this big thing. Either you're a fan of this level of content or you're not, and if you're not a fan then you don't watch it."

The conversation wrapped with Charlamagne tha God asking Hart what he would do if Hinchcliffe called and told him that he was "smacked" by Floyd's brother at a comedy club over the joke.

"You gotta deal with that," Hart said. "What do you want me to do? That's the consequences of the s---."

*****

Because white people write Kevin's checks, and his career in Hollywood took off simultaneously with his "comedy career," he's not going to take responsibility for the disgusting jokes told at the roast. He'll make excuses and use the plausible deniability defense in a way to distance himself from the backlash.

From what I hear the jokes are pre-approved before they are told, and I also heard people complaining about the lack of black comics invited to write the jokes.

The fact that you are one of the most financially successful black comics in the game, and the best you can come up with (the exception of Sheryl Underwood) the unfunny and loudly obnoxious Tiffany Haddish is downright embarrassing. And she didn't even tell any jokes, but she came under fire for calling critics of the racist jokes told at the roast (and I'm paraphrasing here), "a bunch of haters who were jealous they weren't invited."

We know what a roast entails, but jokes about a man who was killed by a police officer told at a time when the rights of people who aren't white, privileged, rich and male is a slippery slope.

The same man who called Puerto Rico a floating pile of garbage couldn't wait to verbally lynch George Floyd, who we ended up hearing that his 12-year-old daughter is being bullied at school. When it doesn't affect you it's easy to boggle it down to "just jokes."

I take no issue with raunchy jokes. But if you're going to be an insult comic, the jokes has to be clever. People like Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe need to stop being lazy with the low-hanging fruit they pass as jokes, and dig a little deeper, and look at comics such as the late Gilbert Gottfried and Joan Rivers for inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXo31OBIdUw