Michael Che pulled out of the live Netflix Roast of Kevin Hart on Sunday because of scheduling difficulties with Saturday Night Live, then used Instagram to torch the jokes and the people writing them after the show aired. In a series of posts, Che argued that white comics and Black comics write differently, and he singled out the material used at the roast as proof.
“White guys and Black people joke different. Black guy roast like, ‘look at this n—- shoes!’ White roasts are like, ‘Slavery, math, slain teens, sex crimes, slurs, family secrets.’ White guys don’t give a fuck about they shoes,” he wrote. In a separate post, Che added, “Let’s do a roast celebrating the career of the most successful Black comic in the last 10 years,” before adding a photo of five joke writers hired by Shane Gillis on the next slide. The five named in the photo were Nick Mullen, J.P. McDade, Mike Lawrence, Dan St. Germain and Zac Amico. All five are white.
Che’s comments landed after a roast that had already been reshuffled several times and sparked backlash online. Gillis made jokes mocking Hart’s height that referenced slavery and lynching, and later said the lynching quip required “three weeks of deliberation.” Tony Hinchcliffe made a joke about George Floyd that drew criticism online. Jeff Ross and Katt Williams joked about Hart once attending a Diddy party, while Pete Davidson and Hinchcliffe both made jokes referencing, but not saying, the N-word. Dwayne Johnson, Gillis, Ross and others also mocked Hart’s late father’s addiction to crack cocaine.
The telecast had 17 credited writers, and several of them were Black. Comedians also brought in their own joke teams, with Chelsea Handler posting a photo with some of her writers and tagging them in the caption. Madison Sinclair said she slipped some of her favorite unused roast jokes to Variety. After the broadcast, Ross said, “Nothing was off limits.”
Che’s post quickly became part of the show’s afterlife. J.P. McDade reshared it and wrote, “Don’t swipe,” a reply that underscored how much of the roast’s fallout now lives on social media as much as on the stage. Che and Colin Jost have already turned Weekend Update into a running gag, but this was not that kind of bit. This was a blunt complaint about who was in the room, who was writing the jokes and what kind of material the room decided to celebrate.
The roast’s central message was supposed to be comic exaggeration. Che’s answer was that the line between satire and cheap shots can look very different depending on who is holding the pen. That is the point that still hangs over Hart’s roast, and it is the one Che chose to make plain.
