Image via Complex Original
Jason Burke: It has finally arrived. The long-awaited showdown of Jason Burke's comedic opinions versus Jonah Bayer's comedic opinion. Two widely popular writers who have never met in real life, and may actually have very little in common, face-off. Who will go harder?
Well, what Jonah doesn't know is that I once impromptu (accidentally) opened for (was on stage when he arrived and promptly had to get off) Kevin Hart, so I have a littttttle more of an inside scoop on this battle of comedic juggernauts. So yeah, my opinions carry a little more weight and should be held in a much higher regard. With that said, Dave Chappelle is the best comedian of all time and Kevin Hart is not. With THAT said, Kevin Hart is a wonderful man who consistently goes harder, is very funny and talented, and I respect the hell out of him. Top that, Bayer.
Jonah Bayer: Wow, didn’t realize that this was a competition between the writers. Very impressed that Jason Burke sort of opened for Kevin Hart. I was actually at a party once and Dave Chappelle walked past me so I feel like I have the same kind of frontline access to this world as well. I may have even awkwardly stepped on Chappelle’s foot or something, it’s kind of hard to remember.
It’s impossible to deny Chappelle’s legendary status and there’s no question that he’s one of the most respected and accomplished comedians of our generation. That said, Hart has steadily built his own comedy empire that includes massive tours, a gig hosting Saturday Night Live, and films that may not gain tons of acclaim but make up for that at the box office. In other words, Hart is a juggernaut and hard-working badass in his own right who seems as if in many ways he’s just getting started.
What Chappelle and Hart think about each other
Burke: This one's pretty straightforward. They're both great comedians and nice guys so there's no reason they should dislike each other. And very rarely do we get rap-game level beef in the comedy community—which is a bummer and something I plan to change—so it's a little harder to gauge who likes who more. But the easiest way is to take a look at who speaks more highly of the other, and that's definitely KH praising DC.
Which is absolutely expected and he's not the only top-tier comic to share such an opinion. Dave is the absolute king and when you’re the king, you don’t have to go out of your way to reaffirm that you think other people are funny. You have no one to offend for you are the ruler of the roost.
I came across one article in which Dave said he thinks Kevin is a “real nice dude” and a “funny dude.” Both great compliments but you’re not going to find him praising anybody like people praise him. In fact, that's pretty high praise in and of itself. So mutual love and respect across the board. Which is nice.
Bayer: Yeah, the nice thing about the generational gap between these two guys is that there doesn’t seem to be a real sense of competition between them—and like Jason pointed out, you don’t hear a lot about comedians feuding the way you do in other areas of entertainment. Very glad to hear that’s something that he is actively trying to change as I think it would make things much more exciting.
It’s pretty difficult to honestly find any comic with a bad word to say about someone as respected as Chappelle, and correspondingly, most of the quotes from Hart are of him saying Dave is “the greatest comic alive” or “Dave Chappelle is the baddest person to touch a microphone that’s alive right now,” which makes sense since Hart was definitely influenced by Chappelle and holds him in high regard.
They’re also peers and when Chappelle presented Hart with an award, Hart wrote on Instagram, “Major shoutout to my good friend Dave Chappelle for presenting me with the Comedy Person Of The Year [award.] I love this guy. He's a good friend and a mentor.” So as you can see, the love fest is mutual.
How comfortable they are with celebrity status
Burke: Bill Murray once said that when you become famous, you're going to spend a few years being an absolute, self-involved pile of garbage. Just the worst living thing imaginable. But, it's on you to come back down to earth after you've had your moment in the sun and be human again.
Dave might have gone through those few years of celebrity scum but there aren't really any accounts of it. He seemed to be a very humble guy, despite the noted issues he had with how his show was being handled. In fact, read this as positive proof of how grounded he is:
"Fame for me is like a place, a country I'm taking a tour through. You just don't walk around feeling like 'I'm a goddamn star.' You walk around feeling like you."
And that's something I respect ten fold as it must be very difficult to stay focused on just being the funniest person you can be amidst all the excess that comes with celebrity. I mean in every interview you read about him being confronted with being called a comedic genius, he gets very uncomfortable with it. He just wants to entertain because he loves it. So let's all take a minute and thank our respective Gods that he didn’t turn into some egomaniacal Christian Bale of comedy.
Image via Getty Images / Jason LaVeris
Bayer: Hart also seems to be relatively grounded when it comes to his celebrity, although admittedly it seems unlikely that anyone today will achieve the media saturation of Chappelle at his peak, if not only because there are so many other things vying for our attention these days. Correspondingly, it’s hard to know if Hart has a shrine to himself in his apartment but he will post quotes like, “Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful,” which don’t really sound like the work of an egomaniac.
I also think that the fact that he’s 5 foot 4 has sort of kept him in check when it comes to his place in Hollywood and I don’t mean that in a snarky way at all. “The quote-unquote 'description' of a leading man was once your tall, handsome man with the build of whatever, almost a trophy to some degree,” he’s said. “I think now it's about making a leading man what you want a leading man to be. In this day, you can't deny talent. You look at Jonah Hill, you look at Zach Galifianakis, you look at myself.”
The fact that Hart puts more emphasis on talent and hard work than appearances extends into how he deals with fame, and I think he’s able to recognize that in other people as well. In other words, Hart seems like a grounded guy who probably enjoys being a celebrity as much as the rest of us do, but he doesn’t let it define him. Which is good because we really only need one Christian Bale.
Level of respect in the stand-up community
Burke: There are not many living comedians that garner as much respect in the community as Dave. He is the OG of OGs. Sure Seinfeld and Rock are Gs, Louie and Bill Burr, of course, but Dave has this mystical air about him that sets him apart from the rest. And that's not because he dipped from the scene for nearly a decade, it's because he's so good at comedy. He's like the Michael Jordan of standup. And that has nothing to do with being black, and everything to do with being best.
I wish there was more to say about this but it's probably the most undisputed category we have here. There is absolutely no way to argue that Kevin, or any comedian, has more respect than Dave Chappelle. And if you think otherwise, I'd go as far as to say that I would fight you over it. At home. Alone. And in my mind.
Bayer: It’s true that Hart doesn’t command nearly the amount of respect that Chappelle does, but Hart is a relatively rare breed in the sense that he’s able to sell out arenas on a massive scale without being looked at as someone like Dane Cook, who isn’t taken super seriously by other comedians. This rare mix of commercial success and credibility is probably due to the fact that Hart seems legitimately thankful and appreciative of where he’s at, and he also didn’t get there by nepotism, prop/physical comedy, or having some type of schtick.
I also think that if Hart continues his current trajectory, he could approach Chappelle levels of respect down the road by remaining consistent, although it’s true that Dave’s “lost years” definitely contribute to the mystique surrounding him and the fact that he’s clearly not looking to exploit his success for financial gain. The secret is achieving that kind of status while continuing to create content, and really only time will tell if Hart is able to pull that off, say, a decade from now.
How much money they make
Burke: Ok well, when it comes to the classic American pissing contest of who makes more money, Kevin's got this one. At least according to Forbes for the year running from June 1, 2014 to June 1, 2015. Kevin has been on an absolute tear as of late, in respect to touring and making big-budget, completely awful films. Now in his defense, which he probably doesn't care to defend, some of them might actually be okay. I haven't seen all of them. Or any of them, for that matter, but trailers and word of mouth go a long way in this day and age. In any regard, dude made cash this year—$28.5 million to be exact.
Dave, on the other hand, clocked in at a cooooooool 7.5 million, which is a quarter less than Kevin, but that number was solely based on a few tour dates. Which is very impressive. That dollar amount will undoubtedly continue to rise over the next year as he'll have a new Spike Lee film under his belt, and hopefully a much larger standup tour.
You also have to remember that Dave walked away from a $50 million contract with Comedy Central to live in obscurity for about eight years, so money is clearly not a driving factor for why he does comedy. That is not to say that he also didn't make some terrible films, because he did, which I will examine immediately after this sentence ends.
Bayer: Neither of these guys are going to be doing those sketchy loan commercials alongside Montel Williams any time soon but, yes, Kevin Hart is pretty unstoppable when it comes to turning laughs into cash. In addition to his stand-up and film income, Hart has found a way to monetize his Twitter feed and was reportedly paid a cool $2 million to write something positive about the thriller No Good Deed to his 14.8 million followers. (Hart now has more than 23 million followers and recently tweeted “I can't stop thinking god right now....He is truly amazing,” which we’re guessing wasn’t funded by the big guy himself.)
It also doesn’t look like 2016 will see a marked drop-off for Hart as his What Now? Tour will tackle its international leg from January to March and see Hart performing his material in massive venues everywhere from Stockholm to Sydney. He also has three films in the works for next year including Ride Along 2, which will see him reprising his role alongside Ice Cube and will likely make a big dent at the box office following the holidays.
In other words, I would feel totally comfortable hitting up either of these guys for a loan, but right now Hart seems to be on an unstoppable hot streak when it comes to anything he touches. Hopefully he is reading this and feels like donating a Tempur-Pedic mattress to a struggling writer out of the goodness of his heart because he certainly isn’t sleeping on a futon like I am.
Rotten Tomato rating/quality of their films
Bayer: Kevin Hart’s movie career is sort of classic for successful comedians in the sense that his films may not garner lots of critical acclaim but seem to do consistently well in the box office. For example Get Hard, his 2015 film alongside Will Ferrell, may have been panned in the trade mags (29 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but you can’t deny that it brought in $34.6 million its first week and was also Ferrell’s biggest debut in five years. Plenty of that can be attributed to Hart’s ravenous fanbase.
Ditto goes for 2015’s The Wedding Ringer, which also starred Josh Gad and was destroyed by critics (27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) but well received by viewers. In the case of both of these movies, the reviews essentially said something to the effect of “two great comedians who were used incorrectly” and while that may not seem positive, it hints toward the fact that Hart could absolutely kill on the silver screen if he was attached to the right project.
Hell, the 2014 buddy cop film Ride Along made $134 million and was able to garner a sequel yet it only has a 18 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, proving that it’s not necessarily that Hart’s films are bad but that there is a disconnect between his viewers and critics. He also doesn’t have that cult movie cred that Chappelle has from being in something like Half Baked that has gone on to become essential viewing for college students everywhere.
Burke: I know I had said before that I have not seen many Kevin Hart vehicles but I'm willing to confidently put up my blind ignorance of Kevin Hart's acting ability against Dave's any day. Kevin just hasn't contributed to any instant classics like Dave. I mean look at this list: Robin Hood Men in Tights, The Nutty Professor, Half Baked, and Undercover Brother. Hell, even Con Air had its moments.
Of course, he had some real bummers: Joe's Apartment, Woo, and Screwed (please watch this trailer, it's unbelievable) to name a few but that's gonna happen. Half of winning the fistfight that is Hollywood is taking some lumps and powering through them, which is something DC has gracefully accomplished. He also has a Spike Lee film coming out this holiday season, which, while not comedic, trumps any and everything KH has done on the big screen.
And I know Jonah put a lot of "numbers" behind his "argument" for Kevin Hart standing up as a strong comedic actor but I'm not buying it. I'm not a numbers guys, I'm an instincts guy. A guy whose instincts tell him to ignore those self-righteous nerds at Rotten Tomatoes and to ignorantly judge Kevin Hart's acting abilities based on trailers alone. Yeah, I'm not that kind of guy and frankly, I think you’re not too.
Coolest entourage
Burke: This is a hard one to argue because the "appropriate" entourage is very subjective. Everyone has their own vision of what their famous life would be like, and who they'd surround themselves with. It's like, are you a "I want rappers and athletes friends around me in every picture regardless of if we even like each other or not" or are you a "models only, bro. Back off." kinda dude? Me? Well, who gives a s**t. We're talking about Dave Chappelle here and he's super low key.
Dave's a lone wolf, for the most part. He rolls dolo from state to state, as Ike Love might say. Sure he hangs with his comedian and celebrity buddies (Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, QuestLove, Bill Bellamy, etc…), but he isn't out there in the streets getting it in anymore. And when he was, you never really heard too much about it. This is the entourage-ing approach I respect. Have your fun in the beginning on the low and never let it interfere with honing your craft.
Kevin, on the other hand, still seems to be in his "getting it in phase." Which is totally cool, it kinda has to happen, let's just hope it doesn't get the better of him in the long run.
Image via Getty Images / Dave M. Benett
Bayer: Kevin Hart is much more visible when it comes to having famous friends, and a quick Google image search turns up pictures of him aside LeBron James, Jay Z, Drake, Ice Cube, and pretty much every other influential athlete, rapper, or pop star. Then again, this is pretty much part of the gig when you’re an entertainer at Hart’s level. That said, there are a few exceptions, such as Pharrell, who he refers to Hart as his “brother.” (Pharrell also looks like he would be a fantastic listener, and we wish he was our best friend as well.)
While Hart does play the Hollywood game, he also seems very committed to his second wife and two children who he spends much of his time with. So it seems as if in many ways that’s his true entourage and one that he doesn’t really introduce to the public eye unless it’s a film premiere or something else career-oriented.
So to summarize, Hart has a pretty star-studded entourage when he wants to turn it on but also seems committed to his family, so he strikes a pretty good balance. He’s definitely more public than Chappelle but isn’t begging for attention like, say, Courtney Love. In other words, he needs security and is friends with Oprah, but he also seems like the kind of guy you could run into at the airport and he’d shake your hand. Remember that in the end, Hart is still just a kid from Philly and no amount of success or fame is going to change that—although the perks do seem pretty sweet.