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A slew of prominent Black voices — athletes, actors, authors, comedians, and so on — are calling out Kevin Hart over the George Floyd joke that Tony Hinchcliffe made at his roast. Hart has not apologized or distanced himself from the joke and has praised Hinchcliffe for being “relentless but funny.”
“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,” Tony Hinchcliffe said during the roast..
Joining Saturday Night Live cast member Michael Che, former NBA champion Stephen Jackson, one of Floyd’s closest friends, addressed the fallout on Instagram by pushing back on the “it’s just a joke” defense.
Many prominent Black voices are calling out Kevin Hart for allowing Tony Hinchcliffe to make a joke about George Floyd during his roast
According to Jackson, that sort of humor lands very differently when the person being mocked is your own murdered family member, while also noting that people tend to stop laughing once a similar tragedy “comes to your doorstep.”
Veteran comedian D.L. Hughley also weighed in, calling Hinchcliffe an odd choice for the roast from the jump.
“I find it ironic that a comedian who appeared at a Nazi rally for Trump a couple of years ago and told a very incendiary joke would end up with the [n-word] that was in Jumanji. I just don’t think those audiences mesh,” Hughley said.
Hughley also took aim at the selective nature of the “free speech” defense, noting that the same crowd laughing at Floyd jokes tends to lose their sense of humor the moment anyone jokes about Charlie Kirk.
Che, Jackson, and Hughley were joined by prominent Atlanta pastor Jamal Bryant, who called the special “disrespect dressed as jokes,” as he took issue not just with the Floyd joke but with the overall tenor of the broadcast.
Speaking to TMZ, Travis Cains, a spokesman for The Gianna and George Floyd Foundation, placed some of the blame on Hart himself, saying that “condoning Tony’s joke is sad for the culture.”
“We are trying to rebuild things for our community and make things better in our community. Let’s try to be a little bit more positive — and not sit up there doing colon inspections by white comedians,” a statement from the foundation read.
Hinchcliffe now has established a pattern of making George Floyd jokes, as he also made a crack about him during The Roast of Tom Brady, saying that Rob Gronkowski “looked like the final boss in George Floyd the video game.”