Cedric the Entertainer is letting Katt Williams know that he was and is still unbothered by the claims that he is a joke thief.
The internet erupted in January when the comic and some of his notable peers were talking points during Katt Williams’ scathing “Club Shay Shay” account of the entertainment industry being littered with content vultures disguised as A-list talent and problematic gatekeepers.
“The Neighborhood” star has addressed the claims numerous times this year, but he did so again during his recent chat with radio host Big Boy. He began sharing that “I woke up the next day to the energy” that the interview stirred up. Noting that he does not indulge much in social media, Cedric said he really had not given the accusation much thought despite the claims going viral.
“A lot of people were asking me how I felt about that, and again, it just feel like the Internet to me. Like, I literally was just not moved by it because we had had this conversation before, not necessarily in person, but Katt had made the accusation earlier at some other time,” he said. “We talked about that, and then I’ve like literally seen this brother. Now we never talked about that issue directly, but I responded to him about the joke, and then he responded back, and that was that.”
Their point of contention is rooted in the “Steve Harvey Show” actor’s joke about driving Black folk driving a spaceship to the moon to continue cohabiting with the white population. Williams’ joke saw him reenact driving a car and make a punchline about loud music. He told Shannon Sharpe early this year, “This is not just a random joke — this is my very best joke and it’s my last joke and it’s my closing joke.”
Katt Williams talking about Cedric The Entertainer stealing his jokes and the problem he got with Steve Harvey, Shannon Sharpe got one with this interview pic.twitter.com/dhlokZS5G9
— Shawn K The King (@SKTheKingYT) January 3, 2024
The “Friday After Next” standout further stated, “1998 I’m doing this joke, it’s on ‘ComicView.’ Cedric comes to The Comedy Store. He watches me in the audience, he comes backstage. He tells me what a great job I did and how much he loves the joke.
“Two years later, he’s doing that as his last joke on the ‘Kings of Comedy’ and he’s doing it verbatim, he’s just changed my car into a spaceship.” He said the thievery made him want to punch Cedric in the stomach.
Cedric said for his industry colleague to “bring that up, something that’s like 30 years old, and you tryna make this accusation and you done seen me in person, you know you done seen me 45 times, bro, like, come on, man. Stop that. What is that about? … I can’t argue that.
“Like, I’m not here to argue that you saying that this is that. Like, that’s not that; that’s not that to me. Like, I write jokes, I been doing this for almost 40 years. I do what I do. I get what you saying, the similarities or whatever, but that’s not the same joke and it’s not the same reason why I got to the joke.”
Moreover, the entertainer said people also need to know that just because Williams did his version of the joke on television does not mean he was the first to tell it. “That don’t mean you didn’t see me do it first. I can’t vouch for that,” he said, adding that “if it’s not the exact same joke, nor would I even say that’s the thing.”
He included that he also faced backlash over his bominicious joke, that people claimed he stole from another comedian. Cedric explained, “Somebody in my family gave me the bominicious joke. … It [the ‘Club Shay Shay’ interview] set up this negative energy of us cannibalizing each other in this industry.”
In case you felt Katt Williams was exaggerating at any point…
— CleverlyChloé (@CleverlyChloe) January 4, 2024
Ima just leave this here.
Actor Meshach Taylor first intro’d the “Bomanicious” joke on the show “Designing Women” (circa 1987/88)
Cedric the entertainer told it in 2020.
🤷🏽♀️ pic.twitter.com/TdxpyNQtmp
Others called out by Williams included Steve Harvey, Kevin Hart, and Rickey Smiley. Each of the men except for Harvey have addressed the comic’s remarks. The Emmy winner elected to not illicit more reactions from the interview topics when he avoided jokes about his peers during his “Woke Foke” comedy special.
