D.L. Hughley responds to Kevin Hart’s ‘Breakfast Club’ interview on Netflix roast controversy
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The comedian and radio host said Hart bears no responsibility for a joke he did not write, but raised pointed questions about editorial decisions made after the live broadcast.
Comedian and radio host D.L. Hughley said Wednesday that Kevin Hart should not be held responsible for a joke about George Floyd told by fellow comedian Tony Hinchcliffe during Hart’s Netflix roast — but argued that the controversy surrounding the special raises questions that go beyond Hart’s culpability.
Hughley made the remarks on “The D.L. Hughley Show”, one day after Hart appeared on “The Breakfast Club” to address the ongoing fallout over Hinchcliffe’s joke, which drew widespread criticism following the May roast.
“I think it’s ridiculous to blame a man for a joke he didn’t tell,” Hughley said. He also defended comedians’ right to offensive material more broadly, saying, “I don’t think that comedians should apologize for jokes. That is artistic expression.”
But Hughley directed his sharpest criticism not at Hart personally, but at the production decisions made after the live broadcast. He noted that 18 jokes — including one about Melania and Donald Trump — were removed from the version of the special that aired to non-live audiences.
“You and that production were able to take 18 jokes away out of the program,” Hughley said. “So if you could do that for them, why didn’t this happen?”
He suggested the answer was calculated: “People wanted ratings. People wanted controversy — and now you have it.”
Hughley also pushed back on what he described as a double standard in how long controversies are permitted to linger. Responding to critics who questioned why the Floyd joke was still being discussed two weeks after the roast, he drew a comparison to those who continue to relitigate the 2020 presidential election.
“The timing and the length of time doesn’t seem to matter then,” he said.
His central argument, however, was directed at the comedy industry’s continued reliance on Floyd’s death as material. “The question to me is not why, after two weeks, we’re still talking about a George Floyd joke,” Hughley said. “My question is, why is it after six years, you continue to tell them?”
He added: “I think the reason it is told and the reason that people continue to be angry about it are one and the same. One man’s joke is another man’s trauma.”