Chelsea Handler is sharing her distaste for Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe‘s jokes at Netflix‘s Roast of Kevin Hart, slamming them as “racist,” “bigots” and “sexist.”
During a Wednesday appearance on the Funny Knowing You podcast with Deon Cole, the comedian said that she’d received messages on social media about Gillis and Hinchcliffe from their alleged former partners. When asked what they told her, Handler said, “It’s just everything we know, that they’re racist, that they’re bigots, they’re sexist.”
Cole asked if Handler liked any of their jokes during the roast in honor of Kevin Hart, to which she responded, “No. I mean, it was ick. It was gross.” She specifically called out a few jokes that Gillis and Hinchcliffe made during the Netflix special, with the first being Gillis’ joke about lynching. (“Kevin is so short, you’d have to lynch him from a bonsai tree,” he said during the episode.)
“I don’t find those jokes to be funny,” Handler said. “Jokes about lynching Black people, lynching is not a joke. That’s worse than rape.”
Gillis shared a statement with The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday in response to Handler’s comments, which read, “This is a big moment for Chelsea. I am glad she’s capitalizing. Good for her. We’re all rooting for her. Anyway come see me July 17 at the football stadium in Philly.”
Handler also criticized Hinchcliffe’s bit aimed at Sheryl Underwood, where he brought up her late husband Michael Sparkman’s suicide. (“Her husband committed suicide three years into the marriage. I’ve been sitting next to her for two hours, and I have to ask, how did he last that long?” he said during the roast.)
“I find that to be gross. I found them making fun of Sheryl Underwood’s dead husband, who committed suicide, is gross,” she said. “You know, she’s fine with that. If she says she’s fine with that, she’s fine with that. I wasn’t fine with that.”
Elsewhere, Hinchcliffe was largely criticized for his joke that referenced George Floyd. “The Black community is so proud of you,” he said of Hart. “Right now, George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard he can’t breathe.”
THR also reached out to representatives for Hinchcliffe for comment, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
Handler concluded, “There was so much disgustingness, that I knew it was gonna be a gross vibe that I would be able to elevate it no problem.”