Social Kevin Hart steps down as Oscar Host

[Andy Capp]

I like the stance Kevin took on this. I've apologized before, I've made the distinction between who I was then vs. who I am now. I'm not going to keep apologizing to feed the trolls.

There's a real issue with hypocrisy here. People want people to be able to change, but some also don't think you're allowed to live down something from your past. That attitude strictly works against people changing for the better.

I agree in part. If he really did address it before, I think he would have benefited from sourcing that and providing it along with his initial response to the issue being raised. Proof of his contriteness at the outset would have been his best defense IMO.

Having said that, I think it depends a lot upon what he actually said back in the day as well, and since I have no idea what he said, I'm not about to judge either way whether he should be apologizing or not.

Oh, and not sure how it's relevant, but full disclosure, I don't get the appeal at all.

 

[bad seed]

Here are the tweets he made apparently. Not remotely close to being as bad as Bernie Mac in his old stand ups. The first one is the only really bad one.

But all they are asking for is a simple apology and then they give him a dump truck of cash to host a lame show. An apology that he gave anyways, after dropping out of the show. I guess he didn’t mind apologizing, but wanted to do it on his own terms.

it's not just his tweets- he has a long career filled with obsessively antigay rhetoric, all delivered with a friendly smile to make it palatable.

"One of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay. That’s a fear. Keep in mind, I’m not homophobic, I have nothing against gay people, be happy. Do what you want to do. But me, being a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will. Now with that being said, I don’t know if I handled my son’s first gay moment correctly. Every kid has a gay moment but when it happens, you’ve got to nip it in the bud!"

If he wants to make these jokes then so be it, but why should he be rewarded for it with a prestigious gig?


and someone earlier mentioned Kimmel in blackface- why the fuck do you dimwits keep bringing that up like the left actually defends or likes him? Do you think progressives care what a Dem-pandering millionaire says?

 

[weed]

How do you know that I would lack empathy?

easily.

your post history. now & then.

 

[bobgeese]

Nah... it's the consequences of a very loud minority in a perpetual state of butt hurt.

Not really. If you post racist or homophobic comments, you should probably be prepared if you’re held accountable.

 

[method115]

He actually is (or was) legitimately homophobic and that's his right. Most of the material didn't really consist of jokes, just ignorant statements made in interviews and various lame tweets although "" by itself is pretty inoffensive and yeah, this is stupid.

What did he say that was legitimately homophobic? All I saw was comments about him saying he doesn't care if people are gay but he doesn't want his son to be gay.

 

[bad seed]

So what? I don't want my son to be gay either. I want him to meet a great successful woman and have an amazing family. I want to be a grandfather to their kids. It's a legit stance and a fear many men have. Doesn't make anyone homophobic at all as I could care less about what anyone does on their own time, but I see nothing wrong with not wanting your kids to be gay. No one should have to apologize for saying they don't want a gay kid.

This is exactly the bs outrage everyone talks about. You shouldn't worry about if someone doesn't want their kid to be gay just like I don't care if you a bundle of gay kids, yet you're the only one that cares about others opinion.

take it a step further and say your beloved son does end up gay. What then?

 

[IGotAHugePeckah]

IMO Kevin Hart played this 100% correct. He didn't give the snowflake brigade a chance to take him down, he got out of the way and now looks like the good guy.

Kevin Hart is the biggest comedy star in the world. The Oscars - whose ratings hit an all time low last year - need Kevin, Kevin doesn't need the Oscars.

BTW, good luck finding a comedian to host who has never made a gay joke before.

 

[n...not crazy]

Hypersensitive SJWs ruin everything they touch

Can't ruin the Oscars

 

[nac386]

We're approaching a mentality that will ban Seinfeld all together. Remember when George thought his black co worker looked like Sugar Ray? The "not that there's anything wrong with that" episode? Homophobia, I suppose. Kramer in blackface....

honestly, apologies don't rectify shit anymore, even if their genuine and heartfelt.

and apologies don't seem to assuage the outraged masses at all.

Kevin Hart did the right thing, and handled this well.

He did address it, numerous times.

but it wasn't good enough...for the outraged mob.

seriously, fuck them and their sensitivities.

I understand what you guys are saying and I mostly agree with you. But we have to look at this specific situation and context and this specific situation really is not a good example to use at all. He has been pretty directly homophobic for a long time. Saying you’d bash your kid over the head with a doll house because it seems kinda gay may be presented as a joke, but it’s still super homophobic and it was a personal statement he chose to make. Its not really much of a joke, it’s a statement of how far you’d go to have a straight son.

“If my daughter had a crush on a K-pop star I’d smash the tv on her head. She can’t date an Asian. I’d nip that in the bud.”

How would LI view that? I’m sure he’d be pretty offended by it. I would think, at least.

In this case all they really ask is that he apologize so that people know that’s not really how he feels before putting him on a giant stage to represent their company.

I think the outrage here is a bit misguided, in many ways more misguided than what the network originally asked of Kevin Hart.

 

[Post 2 Decision]

"Kevin Hart steps down as Oscar Host"

Manlets don't have to step down, they're already there.

 

[flashNsmash]

“If my daughter had a crush on a K-pop star I’d smash the tv on her head. She can’t date an Asian. I’d nip that in the bud.”

NIP??!?

 

[Gregolian]

I understand what you guys are saying and I mostly agree with you. But we have to look at this specific situation and context and this specific situation really is not a good example to use at all. He has been pretty directly homophobic for a long time. Saying you’d bash your kid over the head with a doll house because it seems kinda gay may be presented as a joke, but it’s still super homophobic and it was a personal statement he chose to make. Its not really much of a joke, it’s a statement of how far you’d go to have a straight son.

“If my daughter had a crush on a K-pop star I’d smash the tv on her head. She can’t date an Asian. I’d nip that in the bud.”

How would LI view that? I’m sure he’d be pretty offended by it. I would think, at least.

In this case all they really ask is that he apologize so that people know that’s not really how he feels before putting him on a giant stage to represent their company.

I think the outrage here is a bit misguided, in many ways more misguided than what the network originally asked of Kevin Hart.

This just reminds me of that roundtable of comedians that Bill Burr was a part of when they were talking about I think Tracy Morgan landing in hot water for what he said he would do if he found out his son was gay:

 

[Madmick]

He might be good now (can't say), but back when he first started he was just plain 100% asshole. Did you see when he appeared on the Mike Bullard show and brought a bag full of dead racoons?

Yeah, that's why I credit him with being perhaps the original troll comic-- although the real original was Andy Kaufman.

The entire point of his comedy was just to irritate, annoy, offend, and provoke people until they lost their shit. There is still a shade of this sociopathic tendency in the standup I linked, with "George", but he has matured, and refined it so that it works on the deeper sophisticated levels that too often back during his MTV reign intellectuals would credit him with intending. They would commonly interpret his juvenile antics, however funny they might sometimes be, as an avant garde approach to needling the edges where our social mores stitch together the boundaries that cohere our culture. Even if sometimes this effect was successfully achieved I believe it was more often the unintentional product of desperation--- such as his act of eating a live mouse for a movie-- than some carefully orchestrated manipulation reflecting a profound commentary on human nature and culture.

But it's complicated because I think, in part, that urge did arise from a more insightful intellect disgusted with the ridiculous rules that we humans always impose on ourselves to maintain a sense of order. I think his comedy was in many ways an act of rebellion against this undying oppression of human nature. I'm not saying this oppression is bad, because in fact I think it is necessary, but I perceive it now a bit like my fellow agnostics tend to perceive religion; despite that I believe there are "right" answers, and strongly believe that certain cultures are objectively morally superior to other cultures, it's impossible to look around without noticing that the number of "wrong" answers that exist-- and that have existed throughout history-- innumerably outnumber the answers we perceive to be the "right" one.

As Stephen Roberts brilliantly stated, "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” When you think about all the ways in which people have lived, with all the varying sets of rules, even within cultures, right down to the microcosmic level of families, you realize that in this sense every person who has ever lived has suffered at the mercy of the absent Gods while his own culture tediously reassures him that it is for his own good.

For me, comedians like Andy Kaufman, Tom Green, and Eric Andre are those rare performers with a shared instinctive intelligence comprehending this who then rebel against this oppression by articulating their rage through the prism of comedy. Ironically, though understandably, even sensibly, when you look at it this way, they articulate this rage by relentlessly burrowing to incite this same outrage in the subjects they torment. It really is performance art. You can see it in Tom, too, how in youth this sensibility was more deeply colored by instinct while age ripens it with a more intensively cerebral approach.

 

[King Joffery]

He pussied out by apologizing. Got to stand your ground and double down, only way to deal with these people. If everybody did that they wouldn't have any power.

 

[loyalyolayal]

Sharia, come quick. Let my aim be true and my rope taut.

 

[Rygu]

and someone earlier mentioned Kimmel in blackface- why the fuck do you dimwits keep bringing that up like the left actually defends or likes him? Do you think progressives care what a Dem-pandering millionaire says?

They absolutely do.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

My money is on they’ll either replace him with Ellen, jimmy kimmel or maybe conan

I think Ellen and Conan have too much integrity to follow this.

Kimmel on the other hand...


edit: looks like I stand corrected

 

[nac386]

This just reminds me of that roundtable of comedians that Bill Burr was a part of when they were talking about I think Tracy Morgan landing in hot water for what he said he would do if he found out his son was gay:

He makes a good point about people liking offensive jokes as long as they are not the target and then their story changes.

If Kevin Hart had been expressing personal prejudice against white people this particular forum would have a completely different take on the situation.

 

[sangreporsangre]

I wonder how many of the people who got him fired from this gig were also crying about alt-right types getting James Gunn shitcanned? Anyway I used to wonder how something like Mccarthyism took hold, or even how something like the Salem Witch Trials could have taken place, but not anymore. We're just wired for this kind of shit I guess.

You gotta love how quickly this escalated. "Everyone knew" that Weinstein was doing his thing for decades. It took them 40 years to kick the perverted Polanski out of the Academy. But this got taken care of with the quickness.

 

[nac386]

I wonder how many of the people who got him fired from this gig were also crying about alt-right types getting James Gunn shitcanned? Anyway I used to wonder how something like Mccarthyism took hold, or even how something like the Salem Witch Trials could have taken place, but not anymore. We're just wired for this kind of shit I guess.

You gotta love how quickly this escalated. "Everyone knew" that Weinstein was doing his thing for decades. It took them 40 years to kick the perverted Polanski out of the Academy. But this got taken care of with the quickness.

He did not get fired from the gig, he walked away from the gig.