Kevin Hart Doesn’t Care About Cancel Culture: “Shut the f**k up!”

“Jumanji” star Kevin Hart spoke out against cancel culture after being cancelled multiple times throughout his career.   

Hart was forced to step down from hosting the Oscars in 2019 after old tweets and comedy routines he had already publicly apologized for were scrutinized while he was under the spotlight.

“If people want to pull up stuff, go back to the same tweets of old, go ahead,” he remarked. “There is nothing I can do. You’re looking at a younger version of myself. A comedian trying to be funny and, at that attempt, failing. Apologies were made. I understand now how it comes off. I look back and cringe. So it’s growth. It’s about growth.” 

Hart said that he personally doesn’t care about cancel culture, particularly when it stems from an individual making a comment. “If somebody has done something truly damaging then, absolutely, a consequence should be attached. But when you just talk about … nonsense?” he went on. “When you’re talking, ‘Someone said! They need to be taken [down]!’ Shut the f— up! What are you talking about?”

He thinks it’s ridiculous that people are expected to “operate perfectly” all the time, because humans need to mess up in order to grow.  “It’s like jail. People get locked up so they can be taught a lesson,” he used as an example. “When they get out, they are supposed to be better. But if they come out and people go, ‘I’m not giving you a job because you were in jail’ – then what the f— did I go to jail for?” 

Hart experienced the phenomenon multiple times and has advice for those experiencing it. “I’ve been cancelled, what, three or four times? Never bothered,” he concluded. “If you allow it to have an effect on you, it will. Personally? That’s not how I operate. I understand people are human. Everyone can change.”

Marie Finn