Comedian Kevin Hart is speaking out this week to blast cancel culture, telling those who are pushing it to “shut the f*** up!”
Hart Sounds Off On Cancel Culture
Kevin Hart knows a thing or two about cancel culture. Hart lost his gig hosting the Academy Awards in 2019 because of tweets from more than a decade before that the “woke” brigade dubbed to be “homophobic.”
He told The Sunday Times this week that he’s learned that being talented in the entertainment world makes someone a target for cancel culture.
“[T]he bigger that you get the more people poke at you,” he explained. “I don’t know why. The road to success is amazing. Then you get there and opinions about you grow.”
Hart went on to send a message to those who want to dig up comments from the past to ruin someone’s present-day opportunities.
“If people want to pull up stuff, go back to the same tweets of old, go ahead. There is nothing I can do,” he said. “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.”
Related: Jon Lovitz Defends ‘The Goldbergs’ Star, Says Cancel Culture Is Just McCarthyism
Hart Has Had Enough
However, Hart made it abundantly clear that he’s had enough of seeing people be cancelled for old “nonsense.”
“If somebody has done something truly damaging then, absolutely, a consequence should be attached. But when you just talk about … nonsense?” Hart said. “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? Where people were supposed to operate perfectly all the time?” he continued. “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 s**t.”
Hart himself has been cancelled so many times that he claims to not even be impacted by it anymore.
People need to be able to grow and evolve and make mistakes no matter what industry in they are in. But it's even more important in comedy. Saying the dark, taboo things is what makes comedy the release valve it is for people. We can't get to those places walking on eggshells.
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) June 15, 2021
“I’ve been cancelled, what, three or four times? Never bothered,” he said. “If you allow it to have an effect on you, it will.”
“That’s not how I operate. I understand people are human. Everyone can change,” Hart added. “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?”
Related: Comedian Katt Williams Claims There’s No Such Thing As Cancel Culture
Cancel Culture Is Ruining Comedy
Hart also claims that cancel culture has had a negative impact on comedy:
“It’s not necessarily about cancel culture,” he said. “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.”
Hart ended his rant by saying that while comedy is about bringing people together, cancel culture and politics are about tearing people apart.
“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 said. “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,” Hart added. “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.”
In a more serious role, Hart’s movie “Fatherhood” airs on Netflix this week.
Take a look a the trailer:
Cancel culture has gone way too far, and it’s completely ruining our society.
We applaud Hart for having the guts to speak out against it so unequivocally!
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