Chelsea Handler made withering comments about fellow comedians Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe after their polarizing comments at Kevin Hart’s recent roast.
“I knew enough about Tony and Shane — they’re racists, they’re bigots, they’re sexist,” the “Chelsea Handler Show” star said during Wednesday’s episode of “Den Cole’s Funny Knowing You” podcast.
“I don’t find those jokes funny,” she went on, referencing Gillis poking fun at Hart’s height during the roast earlier this month, saying Hart, 46, is so short “they’re gonna have to lynch him from a bonsai tree.”
“Lynching Black people is not a joke,” Handler asserted. “It’s worse than rape.”
The author, 51, also touched on Hinchcliffe’s joke about the death of Sheryl Underwood’s late husband, Michael Sparkman, who died by suicide back in 1990 — though Underwood herself recently appeared on Gillis’ “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast” the same day, defending the jokes and saying that, “Sometimes humor is the thing.”
Handler insisted that Hart “deserved” an “elevated roast,” and that at a roast, comedians can “go for it without being gross.”
“There was so much disgustingness, I knew it was gonna be a gross vibe,” she said.
Handler, who was a roaster at the event, was introduced by Gillis with equally blistering comments referencing her appearance at a 2010 event hosted by late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and taking aim at her liberal views.
Gillis later defended the coarse comments as “fun” — Handler, meanwhile, addressed her attendance at Epstein’s event in a 2021 interview with Rob Lowe, insisting the dinner party was “awkward” and that she “didn’t know who” the disgraced financier was at the time.
Handler isn’t the only one who had views on Hart’s roast, which is currently streaming on Netflix.
“Saturday Night Live” star Michael Che was originally scheduled to appear at the event, but sources told Variety that he had to ditch the roast due to scheduling conflicts with NBC’s sketch comedy show.
Che, 43, took to Instagram two days after the roast in a since-deleted upload to criticize the jokes delivered by Hinchcliffe and Gillis.
“White guys and black people joke different,” he wrote. “Black guys roast like, ‘look at this n–a shoes!’ white roasts are like, ‘slavery, math, slain teens, sex crimes, slurs, family secrets.’”
Che added, “white guys dont give a f–k about they shoes.”
In another since-deleted post, the Emmy-nominated writer took aim at white writers hired to write jokes for comedians at the controversial live event.
“‘Lets do a roast celebrating the career of the most successful black comic in the last 10 years,’” he wrote. “‘I love that! who should we get to write it?’”
In another slide, he shared a pic of five members of Gillis’ writing team — all white men. “Cmonnnnnnnnn… thats not funny?” the comedic actor captioned the snapshot.
