Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle and the Original Chickenshits of Comedy
Comedians have the right to offend. They do not have the right to escape criticism when they do.
Between lobbing the words “retard” and “midget” around and chastising host Shane Gillis for almost using the n-word during “The Roast of Kevin Hart,” comedian Sheryl Underwood paused to sincerely thank streaming giant Netflix for standing up for the First Amendment.
“Freedom of Speech is alive today!” the former host of The Talk bellowed. “It shows that we can all come together and crack jokes on each other and still respect each other.”
A Hall of Fame stand-up and a lifelong Republican, Underwood was echoing the sentiments of her comedian colleagues and fellow conservatives. According to these so-called “free speech purists,” the artistic and personal freedoms of everyday Americans are under attack by overly sensitive snowflakes who refuse to recognize their right to offend. The current generation of comedians and white people are always lamenting how they can’t say anything without “cancel culture,” the “woke mob,” or people with a “victim mentality” complaining.
Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon also occurred on Netflix, when Kevin Hart, the roast’s guest of honor, appeared on The Breakfast Club. Asked about MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s sentences about George Floyd line (it wasn’t a joke; jokes have punchlines), Hart would only say: “It’s Tony Hinchcliffe; I don’t expect less, I don’t expect more.”
They talked about my dead mom and my dead dad,” Hart continued. “I don’t get affected by the attempt of humor…I don’t understand why we stand on a hill, and it becomes like this, this big thing of like: ‘oh man, the motherfucker, 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.”
See what he did there?
