After weeks of backlash, Kevin Hart has finally broken his silence on the “racist” jokes told during Netflix’s roast in his honor.
The actor and comedian appeared to distance himself from the remarks made at the production, issuing a lengthy response on The Breakfast Club podcast.
The Roast of Kevin Hart, which took place on May 10, has remained on the cultural radar after certain participants made race-related jokes. MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe and Shane Gillis have each come under fire for their remarks.
Hinchcliffe made a joke about the late George Floyd, who was killed by White police officer, Derek Chauvin, in May 2020, sparking America’s largest civil rights protests in history. Hinchcliffe used the Minnesota man’s dying words in a joke against Hart: “The Black community is so proud of you… right now George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard he can’t breathe.”
Asked about Hinchcliffe’s remarks, Hart responded, shrugging, “It’s Tony Hinchcliffe. I don’t expect less. I don’t expect more.”
“The George Floyd joke, it wasn’t a tasteful joke to our culture, to our audience,” Hart explained. “But our audience that’s watching the roast, if you’re watching the roast, you get why they’re doing it. You get why the racial humor is on the table. Like, it’s not... I wasn’t shocked.”
Hart further said that Hinchcliffe, who infamously performed at Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign rally in New York, performed well at the Netflix event.
“I hate to say this, but I’m going to because we’re being honest. People are talking about that joke. Talk about a set. Tony Hinchcliffe arguably had the best set, or one of the best sets,” he said. “Would I tell those jokes? No. But do I get why they’re being told? Yes.”
Hart appeared aggravated by the public response to Hinchcliffe’s joke in particular, saying there was very little he could do and that he would not “compromise” his production.
“It’s my production. We’re live. Like, what is it that you expect me [to do]? You want me to take a live production and stand up and fight Tony, or have a reaction?
“Like, Tony told a joke. It wasn’t a tasteful joke to us. We didn’t like it. OK. ‘Hey, man, f--- that joke.’ We move on. I don’t understand why we stand on a hill, and it becomes like this big thing of like, ‘Oh, man, the motherf---ers, they do this, and they’re attacking the culture.’ It doesn’t have to be that. It literally is 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,” he continued.
“Whatever the headlines or whatever the dialogue is, my rebuttal is simplicity: Remove me from it. I didn’t say it,” the actor said. “If you are upset that the night went on, that’s a different conversation. It’s nothing I can do. It’s a production. It’s a live production.”
“I’m not compromising the live production for a reaction of what? What do you want me to do? You want me to fight afterwards?” he questioned.
“That’s not what I agreed to do,” the star said with conviction. “That’s not the job at hand. The job at hand was to produce a successful roast, which I did.”
The Roast of Kevin Hart shot to number one on streaming last week. In its first week, the show garnered 13.5 million viewers, according to Variety.
Floyd’s family condemned Hinchcliffe’s joke in the wake of the event. A growing public petition has called on both Netflix and Hart to pay reparations to a racial justice nonprofit established by the family after Floyd’s death.
Hart further revealed that he spoke to former NBA player Stephen Jackson, a childhood friend of Floyd, after the controversial event, saying they had a “great conversation.”
The Breakfast Club hosts told Hart he should have led with that anecdote, resulting in a heated exchange between the star and the anchors.
“I don’t f---ing need to prove to people that I give a f---,” Hart fired back. “I did not say it.”
Hart has remained tight-lipped on the controversy until now. Chelsea Handler and Sheryl Underwood, both of whom participated in the roast, and comedians like Nikki Glaser have publicly weighed in, each condemning Hinchcliffe and Gillis’s performances.
Hart concluded that it is not his responsibility to control the words of other comedians on stage. He also suggested that any consequences for Hinchcliffe are squarely on him.
“We are not in charge of the dialogue from anybody on that stage,” he said. “If Tony calls you right now and says, ‘Man, Kevin, I was out at a comedy club, man. And man, this dude, man, said he was George Floyd’s brother, smacked the s--t out of me.’ You got to deal with that. Yeah. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? That’s the consequences of the s--t. There you go.”
