Comedy roasts can get messy. Tony Hinchcliffe is pushing back hard against the narrative that Chelsea Handler stole the show at Netflix’s Roast of Kevin Hart. He’s not having it, and he’s making his case loud and clear.
The Kill Tony host addressed the reaction on his podcast after Handler’s roast material about him spread online. Hinchcliffe said reports about the moment didn’t match what actually went down in the room. He’s also dealing with serious backlash over his own controversial jokes—material about George Floyd and Puerto Rico that sparked real anger. Comedy roasts have always been about pushing boundaries, but there’s a difference between edgy and harmful.
“There’s news articles, ’cause the news isn’t real, nothing is real, that say that I got lit up by Chelsea Handler, which is very, very funny because that’s not what happened at all,” he said.
Handler had taken several swings at Hinchcliffe during the special, joking that he had “the face of a school shooter and the personality of someone who gets shot first.” She also joked about his teeth and his ties to Joe Rogan. But Hinchcliffe claims the real story got twisted in the retelling.
“I got called a Nazi, gay, a racist over and over again,” he said. “I’m none of those three things, a little fun fact.” He also claimed there were issues during his portion of the show, saying, “Fun fact, the teleprompter only went down during my set.”
The George Floyd joke in particular hit different. “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,” Hinchcliffe had said. That material sparked outrage for good reason—it trivialized a man’s death at the hands of police.
Hinchcliffe also called Handler a “c*nt,” which received laughs from the studio audience.
Handler later said on Funny Knowing You that she had anticipated the insults that might come her way. She was ready for it, like preparing a meal prep containers worth of comebacks.
“They couldn’t say anything other than that I’m a whore or my age,” she said. “And you’re like, well, OK, those aren’t jokes.”
★m★
