Chelsea Handler blasts Shane Gillis, Tony Hinchcliffe over ‘racist’ Kevin Hart roast jokes

Chelsea Handler is speaking out against two of her fellow comedians from Netflix’s “Roast of Kevin Hart,” taking aim at their material and questioning whether the event crossed lines that shouldn’t have been crossed.

During an appearance on Deon Cole’s podcast “Funny Knowing You,” Ms. Handler said she took issue with jokes told by roast host Shane Gillis and performer Tony Hinchcliffe, calling the material “racist” and “sexist.” She also said she had received messages from people who alleged the two comedians held racist views personally, though her sharpest criticism was directed at the jokes themselves. 

Ms. Handler specifically called out a joke from Mr. Gillis in which he said Mr. Hart was “so short, you’d have to lynch him from a bonsai tree,” with Mr. Gillis quipping on stage that the line took “three weeks of deliberation.”

“Lynching is not a joke. That’s worse than rape,” Ms. Handler said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Ms. Handler also objected to jokes Mr. Gillis and Mr. Hinchcliffe made about fellow roast comic Sheryl Underwood’s late husband, who died by suicide in 1990. Mr. Gillis said he had called Ms. Underwood ahead of time to clear the subject with her. Ms. Handler said she was not satisfied by that: “If she says she’s fine with that, she’s fine with that. I wasn’t fine with that.”

Ms. Handler told Mr. Cole she only participated in the Netflix roast because she and Mr. Hart go back to her 2000s sketch comedy series, and said her longtime friend “deserved better” than what Mr. Gillis and Mr. Hinchcliffe brought to the event.

Ms. Handler said she entered the roast confident she would “elevate” the evening, noting that Mr. Gillis and Mr. Hinchcliffe would have little effective ammunition against her.

“What were they going to say about me? They couldn’t say anything other than that I’m a whore or my age,” she told Mr. Cole. 

Among her sharpest lines at the roast itself, Ms. Handler targeted Mr. Hinchcliffe — whose remarks about Puerto Rico at a 2024 Donald Trump rally at Madison Square Garden drew widespread criticism — telling him: “Tony, you have the face of a school shooter and the personality of someone who gets shot first.” 

Mr. Gillis responded without apparent concern. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, he said, “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.” Mr. Hinchcliffe did not respond to a request for comment. 

The roast had already generated controversy before Ms. Handler weighed in. A spokesman for the Gianna and George Floyd Foundation said Mr. Hart’s condoning of a joke Mr. Hinchcliffe told about Floyd’s death was “sad for the culture.” During the special, Mr. Hinchcliffe told Mr. Hart, “The Black community is so proud of you. Right now, George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard he can’t breathe.”

The foundation’s spokesman also noted that it was not the first time Mr. Hinchcliffe had joked about Floyd at a Netflix roast — he made a similar reference during the 2024 “Roast of Tom Brady.”