The debate about comedy and cancel culture has been generating some heavy discussion recently, with Seth Rogen weighing in and suggesting that comedians stop worrying about the prospect of offending anyone and just get on with their jobs, unless they’re being deliberately antagonistic or malicious.
Former small screen Superman Dean Cain of all people offered a rebuttal of Rogen’s comments, and now Kevin Hart has chimed in with his opinion on the whole cancellation phenomenon. Of course, the diminutive stand-up comedian and actor is no stranger to backlash or controversy, notably for refusing to apologize for homophobic comments he’d made in the past, which ultimately ended with him dropping out of hosting the 2019 Academy Awards.
There’ve also been several publicized issues to have affected his personal life including infidelity and driving under the influence, and when asked about both his own past indiscretions and cancel culture at large during a new interview, Hart was surprisingly honest and open with his opinions on the matter.
“If somebody has done something truly damaging then, absolutely, a consequence should be attached. But when you just talk about, nonsense? When you’re talking, ‘Someone said! They need to be taken down!’. Shut the f*ck up. What are you talking about? When did we get to a point where life was supposed to be perfect? Where people were supposed to operate perfectly all the time? I don’t understand.
I don’t expect perfection from my kids. I don’t expect it from my wife, friends, employees. Because, last I checked, the only way you grow up is from f*cking up. I don’t know a kid who hasn’t f*cked up or done some dumb sh*t. I’ve been canceled, what, three or four times? Never bothered. If you allow it to have an effect on you, it will. Personally? That’s not how I operate.”
Having signed a hugely lucrative four-picture deal with Netflix, launched his own HartBeat Productions banner and garnered an estimated personal net worth of over $200 million thanks to his various film roles, comedy tours, TV specials and more, he’s clearly not worried about the prospect of his career being affected or influenced by an angry online mob.
Kevin Hart‘s star is only set to continue rising even higher, too, with Netflix drama Fatherhood releasing this week and buddy movie The Man from Toronto with Woody Harreslon arriving later this year, while he’s currently shooting Eli Roth’s Borderlands and recently boarded the cast of animated feature DC League of Super-Pets, so he’s hardly struggling for work at the moment.