Former “Love & Hip Hop: Miami” star Jessie Woo reacted to the flak she received for her “I’m Dead” Whitney Houston quip on Aug. 13 following a recent appearance on “Wild ’N Out.” The reason behind the backlash is because many of the singer’s fans felt the joke was insensitive due to Houston’s tragic death.
Whitney Houston passed away on Feb. 11, 2012, after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub at the Beverly Hills Hotel. A coroner’s report ultimately determined the singer’s cause of death was from an accidental drowning alongside heart disease and cocaine as contributing factors.
Woo initially participated in the “Wild ’N Out” Outgoing Message segment earlier this week. The skit’s premise was to have comedians act out what they imagined celebrities’ voicemail messages would sound like. The Haitian-American singer was then assigned the task of imitating Houston’s voicemail.
In her joke, Woo sang her own rendition of “I Will Always Love You,” by saying, “You have reached my line, but unfortunately, I do not have the time.” Towards the end of her joke, she utters the words “And I” from the chorus and completes it with “I’m dead” before walking off stage.
As the clip became viral and massive backlash, she addressed the controversial video on her YouTube channel. Woo said on mark 1:20, “Here’s what I want to say about ‘Wild ’N Out.’ The show is called ‘Wild ’N Out,’ OK, and when you watch the show over the year, the men on the show they get to come on the show and say the wildest things, the most disrespectful things. It’s still considered comedy. It’s comedic. I’ve always like that I’m somebody who, I love, I f–king love dark humor.”
The “Vacation” songstress also added that is why her favorite comedians are the ones who “don’t play it safe.” Although she doesn’t consider herself a comedian, Woo shares the most viral clips of the men from “Wild ’N Out” are of them “pushing the boundaries and being disrespectful towards women but in a comedic way.”
She then points out the difference of treatment between men and women from “Wild ’N Out.”
“Whenever you see a girl getting dragged from Wild ’N Out” it’s for doing the same s–t. … Or whenever you see any female cast members from that show being dragged its always like, damn, if a guy did that would be the same reaction. And the answer is no. You know what I mean there’s this double standard with women and men. Not just on ‘Wild ’N Out’ but just in the comedic space period.”
Woo wrapped by saying that, despite what anyone thinks, she “loved her Whitney” joke and got the shock that she initially intended to get from people. She said on mark 8:05 “To be honest, I feel like it was a historical moment of that show. I feel like that moment’s going to go down in history as a moment that was like ‘what the f–k.'”
As the former reality star’s clip began circulating all over social media, many people’s opinions regarding the moment were mixed. Some expressed how tasteless the joke was. What others felt that Woo shouldn’t have responded.
“I promise most of us wouldn’t of heard the joke if she didn’t respond to the backlash. Say your jokes and stop responding.”
“It was funny & she’s a comedian ……she should have NEVER responded ….that’s the problem …..this generation could NOT handle Bernie Mac or Richard Pryor or even Eddie Murphy.”
“It was a risky joke😭 she shoulda known the response would go either way.”
“Really? It the unaccountability for me. Apologize and move on. Y’all be making these situations worst on yourselves. Now you bout to get read by millions.”
“Just apologize for the distasteful joke and let it be that. don’t gaslight folks.”
