Photo Credit: Kevin Hart/Instagram
Cancel Culture has been one of the leading themes of 2021. Katt Williams spoke about it to Joe Budden recently saying he didn’t believe in it because guard rails are in place for a reason. He said if you can’t tell jokes without offending your audience, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it. Then there is the annual political event CPAC that was titled ‘America Uncalled’ where they announced their aversion to cancel culture and then immediately canceled one of their scheduled speakers because they disagreed with some past words of his. Well Kevin Hart has an opinion on Cancel Culture and he said he doesn’t care about it.
In a new interview with the Sunday New Times, Hart said, “If somebody has done something truly damaging then, absolutely, a consequence should be attached,” he asked. “But when you just talk about… nonsense? When you’re talking, ‘Someone said! They need to be taken [down]!’ Shut the f*** up! What are you talking about?
“When did we get to a point where life was supposed to be perfect?” the Get Hardstar continued. “Where people were supposed to operate perfectly all the time? I don’t understand. I don’t expect perfection from my kids. I don’t expect it from my wife, friends, employees. Because, last I checked, the only way you grow up is from f***ing up. I don’t know a kid who hasn’t f***ed up or done some dumb shit.”
Speaking of his own controversies, he said “I’ve been canceled, what, three or four times? Never bothered,” he said. “If you allow it to have an effect on you, it will. Personally? That’s not how I operate.
“I understand people are human,” he added. “Everyone can change. It’s like jail. People get locked up so they can be taught a lesson. When they get out, they are supposed to be better. But if they come out and people go, ‘I’m not giving you a job because you were in jail’ — then what the f*** did I go to jail for? That was my punishment — how do you not give those people a shot? They’re saying that all life should be over because of a mistake? Your life should end and there should be no opportunity to change? What are you talking about? And who are you to make that decision?”
He also said that comedians are holding themselves back with their jokes afraid they’re going to come back and get them later. “You’re thinking that things you say will come back and bite you on the ass,” he said of censoring his material. “I can’t be the comic today that I was when I got into this.” The occasional bad joke he says is “not necessarily about cancel culture, it’s backlash.
“It’s about the intent behind what you say — there’s an assumption it’s always bad and, somehow, we forgot comedians are going for the laugh. You’re not saying something to make people angry. That’s not why I’m on stage. I’m trying to make you laugh and if I did not make you laugh I failed. That’s my consequence.”
“If there’s a message to take from anything I’ve said, it’s that in this world of opinion, it’s OK to just disagree,” he told the paper. “It’s OK to not like what someone did and to say that person wasn’t for me. We are so caught up in everybody feeling like they have to be right and their way is the only way. Politics is f***ed up because, if you don’t choose our side, you’re dumb.
“It’s a divide. It’s f***ed up. But I’m not about to divide. I don’t support the divide! I put everybody in the f***ing building. We all come into this building Kevin Hart is in and we all laugh. I bring people together — like it or not.”
And he touched on his previous Oscars cancellation controversy where he said, “If people want to pull up stuff, go back to the same tweets of old, go ahead. There is nothing I can do. You’re looking at a younger version of myself. A comedian trying to be funny and, at that attempt, failing. Apologies were made. I understand now how it comes off. I look back and cringe. So it’s growth. It’s about growth.” He also said, “I say this humbly but I’m as talented as f***. I’m really good at what I do.” And he’s right. The reason he’s still around is because of how talented he is and as he said, his heart’s in the right place.
A lot of the cancel culture criticism occurring right now, particularly in the political arena are those intentionally being divisive and insulting and then complaining about the consequences. That by no means is what Hart’s been doing. That’s also why he’s still here and many of them have been cancelled… not to mention that schtick is old.
