Tony Hinchcliffe has been facing backlash ever since he made a joke about George Floyd during Kevin Hart’s Netflix roast.
During a live recording of his podcast Kill Tony, Hinchcliffe attacked Chelsea Handler after she called him and Shane Gillis “racists,” “bigots,” and “sexist” on Deon Cole’s Funny Knowing You podcast.
“She was a bit of a cunt, I'll tell you that. She just kept coming at me,” Hinchcliffe said of Handler. “The fun fact, the teleprompter only went down during my set. And it gave me a lot of opportunity to remind Chelsea Handler what she looks like and where her life is. Because she had it coming.”
He added, “When Chelsea kept coming at me, I'm like, ‘Oh my God, I'm gonna fuck this bitch up.’ It was so rough. I woke up looking like Chelsea Handler. That's how rough my night was.”
On May 10, The Roast of Kevin Hart, hosted by Gillis, premiered live on Netflix. During Hinchcliffe’s set, he made a joke about Floyd that didn’t go over well.
“The Black community is so proud of you,” Hinchcliffe said. “Right now, George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard he can’t breathe.”
Handler responded to the joke on Cole’s show, where she slammed Hinchecliffe and Gillis.
“They’re racists, they’re bigots, they’re sexist,” she said of the two comedians. “I don’t find those jokes to be funny. Jokes about lynching Black people. … That’s worse than rape … People are like, ‘It’s a roast, you go for it.’ I’m like, you can go for it without being gross. I find that to be gross. I found them making fun of Sherryl Underwood’s dead husband who committed suicide [to be gross]… I wasn’t fine with that. There was so much disgustingness, I knew it was gonna be a gross vibe.”
Hart also responded to the controversy on The Breakfast Club, describing the joke as not “tasteful” to the Black community.
He continued, “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 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.”
