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Kevin Hart addressed Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial George Floyd joke during a Breakfast Club interview, calling it “not tasteful”
Hart emphasized that roasts often push boundaries and said he wasn’t surprised by Hinchcliffe’s style of humor
Hart defended his role as producer, saying he couldn’t stop the live production but distanced himself from the joke
Kevin Hart didn’t think Tony Hinchcliffe‘s joke about George Floyd during Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart was tasteful, but he wasn’t necessarily surprised by it.
Hart, 46, looked back on his May 10 roast during a Tuesday, May 26 appearance on the popular New York City-based radio show The Breakfast Club.
“Yeah, the George Floyd joke, it wasn’t a tasteful joke to our culture, to our audience, but our audience that’s watching the roast, if you’re watching the roast, you get why they’re doing it,” Hart told host Charlamagne tha God, who expressed during the interview that he did not care for Hinchcliffe’s joke about Floyd, the 46-year-old man who was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020.
Hinchcliffe, 41, ended his set midway through Hart’s roast by saying, “You’ve done good, though, Kevin. The Black community is so proud of you. Right now, George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard that he can’t breathe.”
“I wasn’t shocked. That’s what they do. Go look at [2024’s The Roast of Tom Brady]. That’s what they do. It happens every year when they do a roast. It’s not new,” Hart said on The Breakfast Club. “This isn’t a new agenda, it’s not a new approach to comedy.”
When Charlamagne asked Hart if he thought Hinchcliffe “went too far” with the joke about Floyd, Hart responded, “It’s Tony Hinchcliffe. I don’t expect less. I don’t expect more.”
“I feel like you’re saying going too far is the point. I don’t want to put words in your mouth,” the radio host responded, to which Hart added, “Yes, I mean, that’s why you’re there. And I hate to say this, but I’m going to because we’re being honest — people are talking about that joke. Talk about the set. Tony Hinchcliffe arguably had the best set or one of the best sets.”
Kevin Hart and Tony Hinchcliffe during The Roast of Kevin Hart
Credit: Netflix
During the interview, Charlamagne noted that he laughed at Hinchcliffe’s other jokes during his set, but said that he does not appreciate jokes “about violent, tragic death.” He and Hart also noted that Pete Davidson joked about Charlie Kirk‘s death at 31 in September during the live roast special as well.
“Would I tell those jokes? No. But do I get why they’re being told? Yes. I’m not looking at Pete crazy,” Hart said. “I’m not looking at Tony. I know what you’re going to do. I know your style of comedy.”
Comedian Shane Gillis hosted The Roast of Kevin Hart; Dwayne Johnson, Tom Brady, Usher, Chelsea Handler, Lizzo, Pete Davidson, Katt Williams, Draymond Green and Jeff Ross were among celebrities and comedians who performed during the special.
Handler, 51, voiced her own complaints about Gillis and Hinchcliffe’s jokes during their sets and called the two performers “racist,” “bigoted” and “sexist” over their approach to the event in the days following the performance.
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Kevin Hart during The Roast of Kevin Hart, May 10, 2026
Credit: Netflix
The Breakfast Club cohost Loren Lorosa also told Hart during his appearance on the show that she recently interviewed Floyd’s brother Terrence, who also said the joke “wasn’t tasteful.” Lorosa suggested that Terrence believed Hart “to be the kind of person that would stop it right in the moment.” In response, Hart noted that many jokes at the roast featured explicit language about his own deceased parents.
“I don’t get affected by the attempt of humor. I get it. In this case, do more? It’s my production. We’re live. The more is, what? What it is that you expect me to do? You want me to take a live production and stand up and fight Tony or have a reaction? Tony told a joke. It wasn’t a tasteful joke, to us. We didn’t like it. Okay? Hey, man, f— that joke,” Hart said. “We move on. I don’t understand why we stand on a hill and it becomes this big thing. . . It doesn’t have to be that. It literally is either you’re a fan of this level of content or you’re not, and if you’re not a fan, then you don’t watch it.”
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