Sheryl Underwood reveals which Tony Hinchcliffe and Kevin Hart jokes are the best
Sheryl Underwood said people should be offended by Tony Hinchcliffe and Shane Gillis’s Kevin Hart burning jokes that focused on the late George Floyd and race.
Underwood spoke to “Entertainment Tonight” on Thursday about Netflix’s controversial “The Roast of Kevin Hart,” which some criticized as crossing the line — particularly Hinchcliffe joking about Floyd, and Gillis joking about “lynching” Hart.
Hinchcliffe said during the grilling, “Right now George Floyd is looking at all of us and he’s laughing so hard he can’t even breathe.”
As for Gillis, while making fun of Hart’s height, she cracked, “Kevin is so short they’ll have to take him out of the bonsai tree.”
Underwood reflected, “I think people should be offended, like George Floyd jokes, bonsai tree jokes, things like that.”
He said of the comedian, “I want to know what’s going through your mind that makes you think this is right?”
“I told Tony Hinchcliffe personally, ‘You have to deal with the Floyd family – and they have hands,'” he added. “You’re talking about someone’s relative. Not that the joke wasn’t well written, but can you tell that this generation of roasts and jokes, we do things that many people would think are in poor taste but still make you laugh.”
During the grilling, Hinchcliffe and Gillis also joked about Underwood’s late husband, who committed suicide. The former host of “The Talk” and her husband – whose name has not been released – had been married for three years when he took his own life in 1990.
Although Underwood was shown in the audience laughing at the time, she told ET that the jokes were “in poor taste.” She also said that both comedians called her in advance and told her that they were going to talk about her late husband.
“I got a chance to talk to Tony Hinchcliffe and he told me where he was going, then Shane Gillis called me and we talked about it,” he said. “They came with respect but I don’t know exactly what they will say.”
He said of his response to them, “Like when they were talking to me the way they were coming to me, I said, ‘They better be funny.'”
Chelsea Handler — who is close friends with Hart and took part in the heat — blasted Hinchcliffe and Gillis on Wednesday’s episode of Deon Cole’s Funny Knowing You podcast, calling them “racists, bigots, and sexists.”
“I don’t find those jokes funny,” he said. “The rape of black people is not a joke, it is worse than rape.”
“There was a lot of disgust, I knew it was going to be a bad situation,” he added of the roast.
But Gillis hit back at her publicist, telling Page Six in a statement, “This is a big time for Chelsea. I’m glad she’s making money. Good for her.”
“We are all fighting for him,” the statement continued. “Anyway, come see me on July 17th at the ballpark in Philly.”
“Saturday Night Live” star Michael Che – who reportedly walked out of Hart’s roast – also criticized the event on his Instagram Stories.
“‘Lets do a roast celebrating the most successful black comedy work of the last 10 years,'” he wrote. “‘love that! who should we get to write it?'”
In the next slide, Che shared a photo of five white men who were part of Gillis’ writing group.
He also posted, “white guys and black guys make different jokes. white jokes like, ‘slavery, math, murdered teenagers, sex crimes, profanity, family secrets.'”
