Sincerely, Saskia

The world we live in has everyone on tenterhooks right now.

Music can’t just be a bop when it’s sung by abusers; films aren’t an easy watch when the actors who star in them support the genocide of Palestinians; comedy isn’t a laughing matter when it hinges on the downfall and pain of communities that is still ongoing.

When it comes to comedians, a large number of them – specifically white, male comedians – believe they have a free pass to express all their latent prejudices simply because someone is paying them to do so. It’s like the men of the profession haven’t found a way to tell a joke without an over reliance on low hanging fruit that leaves them looking like a joke themselves.

They hide behind their Black friends (Shane Gillis), they take from the culture (Pete Davidson), and they notably use race as their comedic off ramp (Tony Hinchcliffe). Kevin Hart, whose comedic style might be revered as a defining moment for the genre – according to Revolt anyway – is a figure in the industry who you’d think is successful enough to set his own tone, but his latest comedic installment has reminded everyone that celebrity status doesn’t equate to integrity.

Hart’s career progression, no matter your thoughts on his films, is undeniable and he’s in a position where his fame comes with a level of responsibility that, as we’ve learnt in recent weeks, he clearly has no interest in upholding.

I am, of course, talking about Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart, which may have had a near three-hour runtime but the fall out of which will last a lot longer. As far as roasts go, this one followed standard procedure: a bunch of celebrities and comedic “talent” were chucked into a room to mock and degrade the person in question for the world to see.

Now, you could argue that because of the current climate and the sensitivity that comes with not having real world issues resolved – or in the Black community’s case, taken seriously – that roasts as a comedic outlet are outdated because of their lack of boundaries. You could be of the opinion that comedy is comedy and everyone needs to lighten up a bit, but that would be a privileged way of thinking not everyone can afford. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the jokes aimed at Hart were about his height – or lack thereof – and, again unsurprisingly, Hart’s skin colour.

The roast, in a lot of people’s eyes, was an ugly display of racism and prejudice – albeit a predictable one – from white, male comedians seizing the opportunity to take aim at the Black community under the guise of it being a “joke”. Unfortunately, this included jokes about lynching, Hart’s dad being addicted to crack and George Floyd being in hell.

We don’t need to go into the problematic nature of these jokes. I don’t expect white communities to understand the pain that comes with murder of George Floyd or what it represented; the fact we were all locked in our houses, watching police use Black Americans as target practice and see that sentiment leak out across the diaspora. I’m not going to explain the pain of seeing his whole life torn apart as justification for why he was killed in that way or the fact that the rampant online racial abuse gave people a false sense of confidence to take jabs at us in the real world – offline.

As fervent enforcers of racism, I don’t expect anything less from these comedians, which is why I don’t watch them. What I do expect is for any Black person with a platform like Hart’s is to not sit there and allow such behaviour to occur when your name is above the door – and this is a fact we cannot gloss over. Hart has ignorantly doubled down and washed his hands of the situation – no apology will ever be enough, not that he’s going to give us one.

Hart’s complete lack of accountability shows us his character. Hart wasn’t just the recipient of those predictable, racist jokes, he facilitated them. Hart is listed as an executive producer who claims he had no sway over the situation. Live or prerecorded, roasts are written, pre-approved, rehearsed. And let’s say – for those who will attempt his defence – despite those precursor checks, some comedians held their “best” material back for the night in question. Hart and co hired comedians with a reputation for performing the very same material that has him in hot water. Let’s say Hart’s EP credit was nothing more than a move to placate his overinflated ego, once he realised hurt was caused, why did he not apologise immediately?

The fans who have supported him since his early work, him cheating on his pregnant wife or even the many sub-par movies he’s made…  these are the same people who are expressing their upset and outrage and his response is “I didn’t say it”.

It’s this pick me mentality that has got Hart in this position and he’s so hellbent on protecting himself that empathy or any semblance of understanding has gone right out the window. Almost the way those white comedians he’s pandering to act when they make jokes and are surprised those they’ve offended have a reaction to it. Hart has a price and it’s the cost of a multi-year, multi-project deal with Netflix and an executive producer credit, clearly.

Sitting with Charlamange tha God and Loren Lorosa, Hart was given the chance to set the record straight. Instead, he carried on advocating for Davidson, Gillis and Hinchcliffe. Hart had a chance to potentially divert the course of the status quo by calling out tired tropes and setting a different standard, but instead decided to downplay, downgrade and diminish an issue that has left people reeling.

He asks what people want him to do; do they want him to interrupt the production for the sake of a reaction? Yes. That’s exactly what people want you to do. Not Will Smith smack the sh*t out of them on live TV but have a reaction that isn’t laughter. When you laugh along with a joke that has real world implications, you’re giving them – white male comedians – your cosign. 

Since Hart’s the one on TV, the one in the room, the one setting the tone behind the scenes (he repeated numerous times during his appearance with Charlamagne that it was “his show”), he can’t deny the responsibility now. Was it your show or were you completely powerless? We shouldn’t have to shoulder this weight because we didn’t give him our permission to make these comedians feel comfortable in their disrespect to us.

What comes next, after he’s decided he’s done talking about it, is some racist person watches the roast and now thinks it’s OK to repeat it because ‘Oh, Kevin Hart laughed, why aren’t you laughing?’ Then it becomes about how sensitive we are, how seriously we take everything and how we can’t take a joke. And then, the D word gets thrown around: difficult. This is not an exaggeration either; it’s an everyday Black experience – particularly for Black women – that I would have thanked him not to contribute to – but it’s a little too late for that.

Hart might think his “rebuttal” of “remove me from it”, is simple: “The show must go on” after all, but it could have ended with Hart having a lot more respect from his people opposed to some thinking he’s “pathetic”.