“The Roast of Kevin Hart” is over, but Chelsea Handler is still going after a couple of the comics on the dais.
More than a week after the live Netflix event, the former late-night host said she took issue with many of the jokes told by roast host Shane Gillis and performer Tony Hinchcliffe, calling them “racist” and “sexist.”
“I knew about Tony Hinchcliffe and Shane [Gillis] and their backgrounds,” Handler told Deon Cole on his podcast “Funny Knowing You.” She said ex-girlfriends of Gillis’ reached out to her before the roast with information about the comic. When Cole pressed Handler for details, she spoke more broadly about Gillis and Hinchcliffe.
“It’s just everything we know: that they’re racist, that they’re bigots, that they’re sexist,” Handler said. “That they think they’re invincible.”
Gillis and Hinchcliffe were among other comedians who told gasp-worthy jokes at “The Roast of Kevin Hart.” Handler called out one particular joke from Gillis in which he said Hart is “so short, you’d have to lynch him from a bonsai tree.” (Gillis quipped on stage that the joke took “three weeks of deliberation.”)
“It was gross. I don’t find those jokes to be funny — jokes about lynching Black people,” Handler said. “Lynching is not a joke. That’s worse than rape. You’re not joking about rape, are you? … You know you can’t do that, but you can say ‘lynching’?”
Gillis and Hinchcliffe also made jokes about fellow roast comic Sheryl Underwood’s late husband, who died by suicide in 1990. Gillis qualified his jokes by assuring the audience that he called Underwood ahead of time to clear the topic with her.
“I found them making fun of Sheryl Underwood’s dead husband who committed suicide [gross],” Handler said. “If she says she’s fine with that, she’s fine with that. I wasn’t fine with that. I thought that was disgusting, too.”
She added, “There was so much disgustingness. I knew it was going to be such a gross vibe that I would be able to elevate it, no problem. … Kevin didn’t deserve that. He deserved an elevated roast.”
In response to her comments, Gillis issued the following statement to Variety: “This is a big moment for Chelsea. I am glad she’s capitalizing. Good for her. We’re all rooting for her. Anyway, come see me July 17th at the football stadium in Philly.”
A few hours after Cole’s podcast episode with Handler launched, Gillis posted an episode of his own podcast with Underwood. The two bonded over their roast experiences, and Underwood reaffirmed that she took no offense to the jokes about her late husband.
“Sometimes humor is the thing,” Underwood said. “It’s the most uncomfortable humor that lessens the tension and the stress.”
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