In an appearance on The Breakfast Club, Kevin Hart spoke extensively about his Netflix roast and addressed criticism of controversial comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s George Floyd joke.
“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,” Hart said, as seen in the clip below. “You get why the racial humor is on the table. I wasn't shocked. Like, that's what they do. Go look at the Tom Brady one. Like, that's what they do. It happens every year when they do a roast. It's not new.”
Charlamagne challenged Hart on the topic further, and asked if he felt Hinchcliffe “went too far.” “It's Tony Hinchcliffe,” he replied. “Like, I don't expect less. I don't expect more. … I hate to say this, but I'm going to, because we're being honest. People are talking about that joke… Talk about his set! Tony Hinchcliffe arguably had the best set, or one of the best sets between Tony and Sheryl [Underwood], and I would say Na’im [Lynn] had a really strong set.”
Charlamagne said that he was enjoying Hinchcliffe’s jokes right up until the Floyd joke, which elicited gasps from the audience and has since been criticized online. “I don't like when people joke about violent, tragic death,” Charlamagne continued. “I liked Pete [Davidson]’s set, and then I was like, ‘Why you had to say something about Charlie Kirk?’”
Hart praised Pete Davidson’s set, which included a joke about the assassination of right-wing political influencer Charlie Kirk, but said that he would never tell those types of jokes. Despite it not being the type of material he would address in his own stand-up, he defended their styles of comedy.
Lauren Larosa then highlighted the interview she did with Terrence Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, in which he expressed disappointment that Hart didn’t step in at that moment or come back harder against Hinchcliffe.
“This is actually a good thing to give a rebuttal to,” Hart continued. “They talked about my dead mom and my dead dad. They said that they were running a train on my mom. … The jokes about Kevin was on a slave ship in a bottle with the ship in the bottle. I'm going to appreciate humor. I don't get affected by the attempt of humor. I get it, right? In this case, do more? It's my production. We're live. The more is what? … You want me to take a live production and stand up and fight Tony or have a reaction? Tony told a joke. It wasn't a tasteful joke to us. We didn't like it. Okay. Hey man, fuck that joke. We move on.”
He maintained that if people aren’t fans of edgy roast-type humor, they shouldn’t watch it.
“Remove me from it. I didn’t say it,” he added. “If you are upset that the night went on, that's a different conversation. There's nothing I can do. It's a production. It's a live production. I'm not compromising the live production for a reaction of what? What do you want me to do? … That's not what I agreed to do. That's not the job at hand. The job at hand was to produce a successful roast, which I did. I also got the rebuttal. I also got to say shit at the end. What are we dealing with here? I'll say it again. Stop talking as if I said it.”
Hart, who attended the funeral of George Floyd in 2020 to support his family, said that he wanted it made clear that he intends no disrespect to Floyd’s family. He did, however, speak to Stephen Jackson, who was childhood friends with Floyd, after the roast. Jackson later addressed people defending the joke.
During the special, Hinchcliffe joked, “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.” The joke was condemned by Floyd’s family, comedian DL Hughley, fellow roaster Chelsea Handler, and the Wayans brothers, who argued it wasn’t funny enough to justify being told.
Hinchcliffe, who is best known for his mean-spirited live comedy series Kill Tony, garnered controversy in 2024 after he made an appearance at a Donald Trump rally. During his time addressing the crowd, he referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” made several jokes about ethnic stereotypes, and spoke negatively of immigration.
