Kevin Hart Roast: Comedian Ends Katt Williams Beef as The Rock, Teyana Taylor and More Cracks Jokes About Hart’s Height and Filmography
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Katt Williams, Teyana Taylor and other famous faces took shots at a game Kevin Hart on Sunday night at The Roast of Kevin Hart, which was held at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum as part of the Netflix Is a Joke Festival.
Among the most common topics during the three-hour event, which aired live on Netflix, were Hart’s diminutive height, his film oeuvre (including the Jumanji and Ride Along movies) and his absentee, drug-addict father.
Netflix didn’t reveal the list of guests ahead of time, so there were some surprises during the night. Hart’s frequent co-star Johnson made an appearance late in the show, walking in to lively rock music, very pro wrestling-style, as he joked: “I’ve been waiting an entire life where I could come to a Kevin Hart roast, have fun and just talk shit.”
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As Johnson complimented Hart’s wife, Eniko, who was in the audience, Hart playfully admonished Johnson and asked him to stop.
Johnson also brought up the fact that both he and Hart recently lost their dads, noting his famous wrestler dad was built like a “tank” and then showed a photo of his own dad and Hart’s side by side with very different physiques. He also showed a photo of Hart’s dad’s mug shot; Hart joked that whomever agreed to show the photo should be fired.
Johnson got serious for a moment, telling Hart “I love you, brother.” He then quipped he got a tattoo of Kevin on his privates: “It’s a life-size tattoo.” Johnson joked that he would show Eniko later, prompting faux indignation from Hart. “She’s actually already seen it,” Johnson said.
Johnson then took Hart’s seat, imploring him to sit on Johnson’s knee as they shared a toast. The former WWE star asked the crowd if Hart should, but the comic adamantly refused. “To brotherhood, to friendship, and I am always in your corner,” Johnson said, as they each said “I love you” to the other.
Another big surprise was the appearance of comedian Katt Williams, with whom Hart has famously feuded with over the years. Williams slyly said that he only took the gig for the money: “I’m surprised they invited me; that’s how little star power you have. They had to invite your enemies. I said, ‘I hate him.’ They said, ‘Come anyway.’ … I won an Emmy Award but this is gonna be my best acting tonight as I pretend you are a GOAT.” Among Williams’ jokes:
- “Kevin, you’re going to hear some things tonight. Those are called punchlines.”
- On why he and Hart haven’t gotten along: “Privately, this motherfucker stole everything from me. Before he saw my act, he was a 6-foot-3 white man.”
- “Yes, I said some things I’d like to take back. Some things were misunderstood. I said Kevin was a Hollywood puppet. What I mean was the head of Netflix literally had his hand up Kevin’s ass telling him what to do.”
- One word Hart doesn’t say in his act, which starts with an N: “No.” Williams joked that many of Hart’s roles were ones that Williams passed on: “If you’re gonna see a Kevin Hart movie, do it in a Black theater so you can hear words like, ‘I want my money back.'”
- “Seriously, how can you not love Kevin? Only two people haven’t: me and his father.”
- “Kevin was at a bunch of Diddy parties. But in his defense, it was only because Diddy thought Kevin was 10.”
- “I could go on all night hating on Kevin Hart. I have perfected it. But at the end of the day, you have to look in the mirror and say, do I really want to have beef with the rabbit Snowball from The Secret Life of Pets 2? Yes, I do.”
Hart then jumped up and addressed Williams directly: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Katt, wait, hold on. Just give me one fucking minute. Me and this man have been at odds for years and years. You coming out here is quite the fucking surprise. But Katt, I can sit and watch and laugh because I’m a fucking fan, OK? Katt, we have an opportunity in real time, this is live television, to put our fucking beef behind us. I am offering you an olive branch of peace. I want to be your brother; I want to be your friend. Katt, can we move on?” The two then embraced as the crowd rose to their feet. (More on this later.)
Taylor, who will star with Hart in Netflix’s upcoming comedy film 72 Hours, was among the other surprise guests. She read a letter about why she couldn’t make the roast in person. The recent Oscar nominee joked, “I would never say anything so hateful as I starred in One Battle After Another, while Kevin has starred in one bomb after another.” Another surprise turned out to be Lizzo, who jokingly thanked Chelsea Handler for Hart’s success.
With The Roots serving as house band for the night, Usher opened the show by performing songs including a parody of his hit song “Burn,” in which he changed the lyrics to suggest that Hart was no longer funny after becoming a big star. Lyrics included “I watched your last stand-up, not a single funny part” and “look at what money did to you.” An indignant Hart stood up and spewed expletives at Usher, who ended his performance by telling Hart he’d need some “good luck” to get through the night.
Serving as master of ceremonies for the show, Shane Gillis joked about being the “extremely white host” of the night and thanked Netflix “for choosing me to host this celebration of Black excellence.” He also warned that some of his jokes would address Hart’s race and diminutive height (or both at once). A few of his barbs:
- “When you see Kevin stand next to his Black friends, he looks like a period at the end of a sentence.”
- “His ancestors came to America in a slave ship in a bottle.”
- “His mother worked at the University of Pennsylvania and father was one of the California raisins. I’m just joking around. He wasn’t raising anyone. He was on cocaine, which is more respectable than not being there because you’re filming Jumanji 3.“
- “Kevin is so short, you’d have to lynch him from a bonsai tree.” (Hart, who was laughing throughout, shook Gillis’ hand after that one.)
Roast veteran Jeff Ross, who came out dressed like Hart’s idol Eddie Murphy, who wasn’t in attendance, also took aim at Hart’s height and his dad’s cocaine addiction:
- “The world fell in love with you when Michael Jackson dangled you over that balcony.”
- Hart is “the man who put ‘elf’ in Philadelphia.”
- “Your dad was a street hustler and addicted to crack cocaine. So I guess being dependent on The Rock runs in the family.”
Tom Brady, who was the subject of his own Netflix roast two years ago, jokingly asked how “the ‘GOAT roast’ went from me to you. I won seven Super Bowls. Kevin has been in two Ride Along movies. I won five Super Bowl MVP awards. Kevin, you’re the third-most-famous person in Jumanji.”
Brady also took shots at the list of folks waiting to roast Hart onstage. “Look at this pathetic dais. I guess it wouldn’t be a Kevin Hart project if it wasn’t a shitty sequel. You got Sheryl Underwood, Big Jay Oakerson, Na’im Lynn. Who the fuck are these people and how did they get here? I thought they shut down Spirit Airlines.” Brady then took aim at Chelsea Handler, saying: “What happened to Nikki Glaser? She looks like shit. Oh, my bad, sorry Chelsea.”
Lynn joked to Hart that “the only thing you got in common with Tom Brady is you both love your career more than your wife,” referring to Brady’s ex Giselle Bundchen. He also made a lot of jokes at Handler’s expense, nothing that she is “aging at the speed of white” and would be well-suited to star in a Golden Girls revival as “Betty White now,” noting the star is dead.
When she took the stage, Handler noted that she’d given Hart a weekly spot on her late-night show Chelsea Lately when he was still an up-and-coming comic, joking that she was going to “something we don’t see white people do enough of in Hollywood: take credit for a Black person’s career.”
Pete Davidson also took the stage, aiming his jokes at the comedians on the panel, mostly sparing Hart. Turning to Hart, he asked: “What can you say about Kevin that hasn’t already been yelled out by a guy with Tourette’s at the BAFTAs“? Davidson ended with an earnest note, thanking Hart: “I love you very much. You’ve always been super nice to me. … You’re a very hardworking person, and when it’s all said and done, in the comedy world, it’s most important to be remembered.”
As is customary for the roasts, the center of attention took the stage last, introduced by Johnson. Hart shared that he’d previously told all the roasters, “I want you to go as hard as you want, because I get the mic last.” He said he was going to take “raw” shots at all the roasters.
Hart also revealed that he didn’t realize Johnson was going to be there Sunday night. “He shocked me,” Hart said, before joking that Johnson’s recent weight loss was not because of Ozempic but instead was due to “AIDS.” Hart also joked that Johnson wasn’t aware he was half Black and wished he’d do more Black-themed films: “I’m sick of all this Hawaiian shit,” he said, referring to Johnson’s role in the Moana franchise.
Regarding Williams, Hart took some shots at the comedian and at first called into question whether he was serious about ending their feud: “Everybody has said tonight I can’t act. Kevin cannot act. I want you to go back and look at that moment when I shook Katt’s hands, and I said I wanted us to be friends. Some of the best fucking acting I’ve ever done in my carer. I did not mean one word of what I said. Fuck Katt Williams. Katt Wiliams is a motherfucking liar. Katt has lied on me about so much shit.”
He continued: “I haven’t’ been to no fucking Diddy parties. I went to one party. The only reason Katt knew I was there was because he was there too!”
Hart also addressed Williams’ claims that he turned down nearly every film that Hart ended up starring in: “You’re telling me you turned down” — here Hart quickly went through his film credits — “[all of it] so you could do a cameo in Norbit? Is that what you’re telling me, Katt?”
But then Hart admitted he had been serious about ending the feud: “On a serious note, I love the fact that that man showed up tonight. I meant what I said: that beef is over. Katt and I are friends from today moving forward.”
The event also featured Draymond Green; Tony Hinchcliffe, who suggested that one topic that was off-limits was Hart’s kids; Regina Hall; Katt Williams; and Venus and Serena Williams. Spotted in the audience were Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, Jennifer Lopez, Hart’s wife Eniko, Seth Green, Tracee Ellis Ross, Byron Allen and John Stamos, among others.
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