Kevin Hart's Homophobic Tweets Resurrected With Oscar Announcement

By Kristy Puchko | Film | December 6, 2018 |

Kevin Hart has sellout stand-up tours, and a slew of hit comedies to his name, including Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Ride Along, and Night School. To some, his fame and reputation for funny made him a solid pick to host the 90th Annual Academy Awards. However, Hart’s history of homophobic comments in the press and in his act has some outraged over his hiring for the prestigious event, especially as this year’s Oscars are likely to honor films that focus on LQBTQA+ characters. After we posted about this yesterday, Twitter users came with more receipts on Hart’s homophobia. And by that, I mean his tweets.

I never realized @KevinHart4real is a homophobe. He was also just announced to be the host of the 2019 @TheAcademy #Oscars 🤭 Guess I’ll be skipping that. pic.twitter.com/JmSEjF1WnZ — Willis Love (@willislove) December 6, 2018

I wonder when Kevin Hart is gonna start deleting all his old tweets 🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/ZbYG6SI3Xm — Benjamin Lee (@benfraserlee) December 5, 2018

So are these the kind of "jokes" Kevin Hart is gonna tell when he hosts Oscars? pic.twitter.com/ElnX5uUR1l — Adam Ellis (@moby_dickhead) December 6, 2018

This morning when I searched Hart’s Twitter account for the word “gay,” here were the results:

That’s a lot of gay “jokes,” perhaps especially from a comic who insists he’s not homophobic. Notably, they stop in 2010. Which some might suggest means Hart had a change of heart and realized these jokes are lazy at best and harmful at worst. However, his explanation regarding a 2010 bit about shoving his son to the ground to reprimand the boy for a “gay moment,” leaves me doubtful.

Now, it’s not shocking to me that Hart tweeted gay jokes or even that he tweeted the slur “fag” into 2011. Gay panic has long been a part of Hart’s schtick, popping up in Get Hard, Central Intelligence, and even arguably in the Jumanji sequel. What does shock me is that the Academy either did zero research into Hart. Or they did, but didn’t care about any of this. I know THR said hosting the Oscars is a thankless gig that nobody wants, but is the bar really so low? Sadly, probably. The Academy wants a host they hope will make people tune in for their notoriously overlong and self-indulgent affair, and they think Hart will get them that. Which is a shame, because Rhea Butcher is ready, willing, able, and looks specatcular in a suit.

I look real good in a suit, Oscars pic.twitter.com/rcSiwDyI3c — rhea butcher (@RheaButcher) December 5, 2018

Cynical though this may be, I’m most shocked that Hart—or at the very least his PR team—didn’t do Twitter clean-up ahead of this announcement. They can’t erase his homophobic stand-up bit, or the troublesome comment he made about never wanting to play a gay character. But in the wake of James Gunn getting fired for tasteless Twitter jokes, wouldn’t you assume every comedian would at the very least do a quick search to clean up their timeline? Well, better late than never, it seems.

This Hart tweet is gone. But screengrabs are forever.

In case you’re curious how Hart’s responding to backlash over his past comments and current Oscar gig, he’s ignoring it.

I was asked the most amazing question from my kids today on the phone….they said "Dad why don't you get mad when people talk about you on the internet" …my answer was "I never see that stuff because I'm to busy being happy & loving you 2" — Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) December 6, 2018

I then explained to them that it's hard to know what angry things people are saying when you stay away from the places that angry people love. I said angry people love the internet… so use it only when necessary and spend the rest of ur time enjoying life. — Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) December 6, 2018

I swear I love being a dad. — Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) December 6, 2018

Kristy Puchko is the managing editor of Pajiba. You can follow her on Twitter.

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