Comedian
Kevin Hart slammed “cancel culture” in a weekend interview with the British
Sunday Times, saying he had personally been “canceled” on “three or four” occasions.
“I personally don’t give a sh*t about it,” he
said in reference to cancel culture. “If somebody has done something truly damaging then, absolutely, a consequence should be attached. But when you just talk about … nonsense?” When you’re talking, ‘Someone said! They need to be taken [down]!’ Shut the f*ck up! What are you talking about?”
The 41-year-old Hart rose to fame with his 2009 comedy special,
I’m a Grown Little Man. He later began acting, and has since appeared in more than 60 films. His latest stand-up routine,
Zero F**ks Given, briefly attracted attention last year from culture warriors aggrieved by a line in which Hart asserted his daughter engaged in “hoe-like activity,” which
The Daily Mail described as “belittling [to] Black women as a whole.” However, the controversy quickly subsided after Hart dismissed the criticism as a “false narrative.” The skit has racked up more than 21 million views on Netflix to date.
“When did we get to a point where life was supposed to be perfect?” Hart said. “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*cking up. I don’t know a kid who hasn’t f*cked up or done some dumb shit.”
“I’ve been cancelled, what, three or four times?” he added. “Never bothered. If you allow it to have an effect on you, it will. Personally? That’s not how I operate. I understand people are human. 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*ck 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 argued that comedy has suffered because of the issue. “You’re thinking that things you say will come back and bite you on the ass,” Hart said. “I can’t be the comic today that I was when I got into this.”
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