Kevin Hart has defended Tony Hinchcliffe's controversial set at his Netflix roast after the comedian came under fire for making a George Floyd joke.
Several days after The Roast of Kevin Hart, Chelsea Handler slammed fellow roast comedians Hinchcliffe and Shane Gillis's jokes, calling them "racist" and "sexist".
Hinchcliffe has received backlash for making a joke about Floyd, a Black man who was murdered by police in 2020, 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."
During an appearance on The Breakfast Club on Tuesday, Hart defended the comedian, insisting Hinchcliffe had "arguably had the best set or one of the best sets" of the night.
"Yeah, the George Floyd joke, it wasn't a tasteful joke to our culture, to our audience, 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 humour is on the table," the Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle star said. "I wasn't shocked. That's what they do. Go look at (The Roast of) Tom Brady, like, that's what they do. It happens every year when they do a roast."
When asked if the comedian went too far with the joke, Hart stated, "It's Tony Hinchcliffe. I don't expect less. I don't expect more."
He continued, "Like, would I tell those jokes? No. But do I get why they're being told? Yes. I'm not looking at Pete (Davidson) crazy. I'm not looking at Tony. That's what I know you're going to do. I know your style of comedy."
The actor added that he wanted to be removed from the discourse about the jokes because he didn't come up with them, declaring, "Stop talking as if I said it."
Handler, who was involved in the roast, revealed days later that she took particular issue with Gillis's joke about lynching.
"It was gross. I don't find those jokes to be funny - jokes about lynching Black people. Lynching is not a joke," she fired during an appearance on the Funny Knowing You podcast with Deon Cole last week.
