«I wonder if there was any backlash here.»
Nick Cannon has attempted to defend Kevin Hart by unearthing controversial tweets from high profile figures including Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer and Chelsea Handler. Celebrated comedian Hart stepped down from the Oscars on Friday after a series of seemingly homophobic tweets were unearthed earlier in the week. In one, he said: “If my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay’.” In the wake of the controversy, Hart offered his resignation and said he did not “want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists.”But on Friday evening, Cannon attempted to defend Hart by sharing material from other comedians that he deemed to be similarly contentious. In one tweet from 2011, Chelsea Handler is seen referring to “f*g birds”, while the slur is also used by both Silverman and Schumer in other tweets from over seven years ago. Justifying his actions, Cannon subsequently wrote: “You know I’ve been saying fucked up shit since twitter started! I don’t play that politically correct bullshit! Fuck politics!! Only Truth!”
Although Handler and Schumer are yet to respond, Silverman shared a Twitter thread that offered a justification for their tweets. In it, writer Greg Hogben claimed that the use of the slur was justified because all three have previously proved themselves to be active allys of the LGBT community.
“The thing is, a lot of gay guys didn’t take offence to these comments, because we didn’t feel the violence or malicious intent behind it. Because we knew they were jokes. Because we knew these people were LGBT allies,” he wrote.
But Hogben argues that Hart does not have “a history of helping at risk LGBT youth. To be honest, his tweets and his stand-up gig saying he’d ‘do anything not to have a gay son,’ made me bristle. In short, it *felt malicious.”
This article was originally writing by: NME
