Black comedians have long mastered the art of roasting, so they understand the genre better than anyone criticizing them.
Mocking the tragic death of George Floyd is seen as deeply disrespectful and unacceptable, even in the context of a roast.
Defending the ‘joke’ as acceptable because ‘nothing is off limits’ ignores the real harm and offense it causes.
Some might say that this white man has no idea how disrespectful and insensitive his “comedy” is to the Black community, but we would argue that he’s knows exactly how disrespectful and insensitive it is and that’s why he’s doing it.
BOSSIP previously reported on the firestorm of controversy that Tony Hinchcliffe set off with his “joke” about George Floyd during Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart, and the subsequent response from Floyd’s family. However, they weren’t the only ones who were appalled, disturbed, and flat-out pissed off about Hinchcliffe’s racist caucasity-audacity.
Lil’ Rel Howery didn’t bite the smallest piece of his tongue during a nearly three-minute Instagram video addressing the egregious attempt at humor that not only mocked Floyd’s infamous last words, but also implied that he was now in hell.
“What I am annoyed by, and I’m just keeping it one hundred y’all…I don’t understand, it’s one thing to roast the people that’s there. It’s one thing to roast the people who may be in the audience. Roasting someone No. 1 that’s dead, No. 2 that’s not there, No. 3 that the implications of why you shouldn’t joke about thatTony Hinchcliffe’s joke about George Floyd didn’t make f***ing sense to me. It was no reason to bring George Floyd into this. It was just disgusting,” said Lil’ Rel.
Social justice activist Tamika Mallory also took to Instagram to react to the “sh*ts and giggles” that Hart and others got at Floyd’s expense.
“There is literally NOTHING funny about how George Floyd was murdered. Allowing that white man or any other man to stand up there and disrespect Us, while laughing, is disgusting,” she said.
Actress and comedian Franchesca Ramsey also had a strong reaction to Hinchcliffe’s material via Threads.
“If your perspective as a comedian is ‘nothing is off limits,’ that means you accept that some jokes will offend people. I don’t understand getting angry or defensive bc people are reacting negatively to jokes that are clearly intended to be offensive/controversial,” she wrote.
Unconscious Flyness host Chad Deshawn clapped back at those who are defending Hinchcliffe, and saying that Black folks are being too sensitive and don’t understand roast-style comedy.
“I’ll say this about the Kevin Hart roast and be done: There’s a generation of Black kids that grew up in the 80’s and 90’s roasting each other, talking about mama’s, daddy’s, dead grandparents—you name it. You’re not going to tell us ‘yOu DoN’t KnOw WhAt A rOaSt Is…’WHAT??? We didn’t invent the stove, but we d— sure perfected that MF,” he said.
That’s a fact. If there is one group of people who you can’t blame for not understanding dark and edgy comedy, it’s Black folks. The nerve!
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