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Podcaster Joe Rogan called out comedians who are condemning the politically incorrect humor at the Kevin Hart roast, arguing on Friday that they are disrespecting the art of comedy as a profession.
The recent roast of Hart made waves for its no-holds-barred jokes that outraged people across the political spectrum. Netflix’s recent roast specials have been infamous for jokes about panelists’ divorces, dead relatives and numerous other taboo topics. During the night, Tony Hinchcliffe made headlines by appearing to imply George Floyd was watching the show from hell, saying, “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.”
Jokes like this and others have caused a firestorm among comedians, particularly among liberal circles or in the Black community, who have begun to criticize Hart, arguing he should have intervened somehow.
Rogan spoke with his fellow comedian Harland Williams about how much of the general public is not aware of how brutal roasts can be, by their very nature, partially because they had been phased out of American culture until relatively recently.
“It’s a long time in the zeitgeist, right? So those things don’t exist to kids. Roast jokes are f—ing mean. They’ve always been f—ing mean,” Rogan said, adding that the late Patrice O’Neal could “eviscerate” the entire stadium with his sharp humor.
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“The thing is, if you’re a person, and you’re not accustomed to roasts, and you don’t get why those jokes are so mean, I get it,” Rogan said. “But comedians — comedians that are getting upset about these roast jokes… F— all the way off. Just f— all the way off, you f—ing traitor. You know what this is. You know exactly what this is. You’re a f—ing traitor. You’re just using this moment to try to boost yourself up, to try to, like, knock down what’s happening.”
He went on to say, “You could disagree with the content. You could say, ‘I think they went too far with this,’ But this f—ing pretending that these people are actual racists and Nazis just because they’re telling these jokes that are in a roast? Like, f— all the way off.”
“Yeah. Don’t suit up, go out, and play hockey if you don’t want to play hockey,” Williams agreed. “Sit on the bench. And don’t badmouth the people playing hockey.”
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Rogan agreed, recalling, “And by the way, you know who didn’t have a problem with it? Kevin f—ing Hart. Kevin f—ing Hart has defended every single person that said horrible s— about him — about him being lynched from a bonsai tree and all the craziest s— that they said.”
“Well, you know, who else didn’t have a problem with it is the people, the corporations that put it on corporate television, on corporate airwaves,” Harland agreed.
Rogan argued that recent roasts like this have been some of the most popular content in the history of Netflix.
Hart had indeed defended the roast during an interview with Charlamagne tha God and rejected calls that he should have intervened to stop the racially charged jokes on behalf of the Black community.
Hart defended Hinchcliffe’s controversial standup set as one of the best, if not the best, of the night. He went on to recall that there were jokes told at the expense of his dead parents that night he did not stop either, and that he should not be held responsible for other people’s jokes.
When he mentioned that he had a positive phone call with one critic who had been offended by the George Floyd joke, and Charlamagne argued he should have led with that to show that he cares, Hart replied, “I don’t f—ing need to prove to people that I give a f—!”
“Yes, you do,” Charlamagne replied.
“No, I don’t!” Hart said. “If you open that door, then that’s the door that people expect all the time. Why the f— do I need to do that?”
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