Tiffany Haddish mentioned the nationwide campus protests over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in her Netflix Is a Joke standup set in Los Angeles, and the response to what she said is just the latest controversy to face the comedian.
Haddish’s comments went viral online, and in them, she said, in part,
There’s not genocide at the college. I give a f**** about what’s going on, on the other side of the world, but why would I give a f**** about the college? … This the s*** I’m talking about, stupid motherf***ers at the college. Ain’t never worked a goddamn day in your life.”
via The Hollywood Reporter
Haddish later clarified her position, speaking with TMZ in New York. ” … If you want to protest? Protest. But if you really want to be effective and make change, go up to the legislation office, go up to your Senator, call your council. Go to Congress. [Go to the people] who make change … it would be way more effective,” she said, in part.
Tiffany Haddish’s post-Oct. 7 trip to Israel
Before her divisive Netflix bit, the comedian also courted controversy when she visited Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks inside the country, telling TMZ in a video,
I can’t believe everything that I read. I need to go see for myself. I want to talk to the actual people that’s here, the people that actually experienced the situation that happened on the 7th.”
via TMZ
Tiffany Haddish also mentioned her trip to Israel in her Netflix is a Joke appearance. “Palestinians was there and they was telling me what it was like over there in Gaza and they was telling me how hard it is to be from there, and I was like, ‘Damn, you describing South Central L.A. on 10, b****,’” she said, in part.
“It was crazy, and I’m very upset about the whole thing. I want there to be peace. We deserve peace; they deserve peace. Peace! And us over here causing turmoil over here don’t create peace. You know what creates peace? Take your a**over there,” Haddish added.
Tiffany Haddish’s 2022 child sex abuse civil suit
Haddish’s controversial Israel-Hamas war comments came roughly two years after she and comedian Aries Spears were named in a civil suit alleging child sex abuse. According to the suit, Haddish and Spears groomed two minors who were 7 and 14 years old at the time to simulate sex acts and appear in a sexually suggestive video posted on the Funny or Die website, according to NPR. The video was taken down, the website said.
Haddish later said she regretted appearing in the skit, and though it was intended ” … to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all.” The plaintiffs in the case later dropped the suit. Trizah Morris, their mother and Haddish’s longtime friend, sued the comedian for defamation after Haddish suggested the civil suit was an extortion attempt. As of Feb. 2024, the defamation suit was in arbitration, according to The Root.
Other Haddish controversies
Other high-profile controversies have followed the Girls Trip actress over the years. Among them, in 2023, she shared a post on X seemingly in support of actor Jonathan Majors, who was later convicted of reckless assault and harassment.
Sharing Haddish’s since-deleted X post, Chris Evans (no relation to the Marvel star) wrote,
“Tiffany Haddish is a mess. Let’s not forget she and her friends bullied a Black woman doctor into a suicide attempt because she was trying to give them factual information about COVID.”
via Chris Evans/X
Weeks before the Netflix is a Joke appearance, Haddish had opened up about her Jewish heritage in a Marc Maron WTF podcast interview. Israel has said Hamas killed approximately 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7. Since then, Israeli forces have killed an estimated 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, many of whom are civilians, in what Israeli officials call a war against Hamas. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has been described as an attempted genocide by some outside observers.