Kevin Hart may have survived a brutal celebrity roast, but he says there’s one A-lister who remains completely off-limits.
Hart was the subject of The Roast of Kevin Hart, a three-hour live Netflix comedy special that aired on May 10 as part of the Netflix Is a Joke Festival.
The event put Hart in the hot seat while fellow comedians, athletes, and celebrities mocked his career, personal life, scandals, and public image. Shane Gillis hosted the roast.
The lineup included figures such as Jeff Ross, Chelsea Handler, Pete Davidson, Draymond Green, Tony Hinchcliffe, and Katt Williams, with surprise appearances from Dwayne Johnson and Tom Brady.
The show followed the success of The Roast of Tom Brady in 2024 and is part of a long-running celebrity tradition that has previously targeted figures including Justin Bieber, Charlie Sheen, Donald Trump, Pamela Anderson, Bruce Willis and Alec Baldwin.
In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, Hart discussed the tradition of roasting celebrities, calling it “necessary” because “it’s an actual talent within the idea of roast that comedians have to have to make this work.”
But he added that there is one celebrity he believes is impossible to make fun of on stage.
When asked by Kimmel if he would like to see Oprah Winfrey become the subject of a roast, Hart responded: “That’d be like spray painting the Sistine Chapel. If I found out that Oprah said she wanted to do it, I’m driving 100 miles per hour to Oprah’s house. You cannot do this. No shot.”
The Roast of Kevin Hart generated controversy after several jokes were branded racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive. The biggest backlash centered on a joke by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe about George Floyd, who was murdered by police in 2020.
“The Black community is so proud of you,” Hinchcliffe said of Hart during his roast. “Right now, George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard he can’t breathe.”
Hinchcliffe notoriously performed at Donald Trump’s 2024 Madison Square Garden Rally, where he made a widely condemned joke about Puerto Ricans.
Following the Netflix show, George Floyd’s brother, Terrence Floyd, criticized Hart for remaining silent during the controversial joke, arguing in an interview with Breakfast Club host Loren LoRosa that the comedian should have shown some “Will Smith energy” and challenged the remark on stage.
The criticism was echoed by Handler, who later blasted both Hinchcliffe and Gillis, accusing them of being “racist,” “bigots,” and “sexist.”
But Hart defended the joke. When asked if he thought the joke went “too far,” he told The Breakfast Club: “It wasn’t a tasteful joke to our culture, to our audience, but our audience that’s watching the roast, if you’re watching the roast, you get why they’re doing it. You get why the racial humor is on the table.”
He continued: “I wasn’t shocked. That’s what they do. Go look at [The Roast of] Tom Brady, like, that’s what they do. It happens every year when they do a roast. It’s not new.
“It’s Tony Hinchcliffe. I don’t expect less. I don’t expect more.”
He added: “Like, would I tell those jokes? No. But do I get why they’re being told? Yes.”
