Kevin Hart may have found himself in the crosshairs of cancel culture again.
The comedy box office star is currently globetrotting on his “Reality Check” comedy tour. On Dec. 9, he announced that he will be bringing the show to Cairo, Egypt. The performance is scheduled to take place at the Cairo Indoor Stadium on Feb. 21. It will mark the comedian’s first time doing standup in the ancient city known as the home of the pyramids of Giza.
While Hart is finishing up the North American leg of the junket, he is already being slammed by fans in Africa for an alleged joke.
According to the Middle East Eye, the entertainment mogul is accused of saying that ancient Egyptians were Black. As a result, many have called for his upcoming show in Cairo to be canceled and have expressed disdain for the actor through hashtags such as #kevin_hart_is_not_welcome_in_egypt and #CancelKevinHartShow.
Debates about Egyptians not having the Eurocentric roots has been an ongoing debate. Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop, a Senegalese scholar, refuted efforts to continue whitewashing Egypt’s melanated history in the 1980s by pointing out that mummified remains proved their hair, features, the amount of melanin found in skin samples, and other factors all prove that they were genetically Black. Reactions to Hart’s alleged comparison and Egypt’s debated genealogy have been split.
Neither Hart, 43, nor his team have publicly addressed the matter at the time of this report. This is not the comedian’s first foray into dealing with fans who do not find humor in his jokes.
Many people will remember that he lost out on the chance to host the 2019 Oscars when an old tweet where he joked about how he would react if his son, Hendrix, identified as gay struck a nerve with the LGBTQ+ community.
Hart was again criticized in 2020 when he made a joke about his daughter, Heaven, having “hoe-like activity” because of her fleeting teenage crushes. In an Instagram post, Hart addressed the “Zero F**ks Given” joke backlash and cleared up any misconception that he was disrespecting his daughter.
“We gotta stop. Stop with the false narrative, it’s a false narrative that’s being created… I’m not calling my daughter a hoe, I’m saying what she did is hoe-like activity,” said the father of four.
In July 2021, Hart told The Sunday Times that he has remained hugely unbothered by the public’s past efforts to cancel him over his controversial comedy bits. Hart said, “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—k up! What are you talking about?”
Last month, when he appeared on “The Very Well Mind” podcast, the “Fatherhood” star said society’s sensitivity has curtailed his joke telling. “Now, there is a heightened level of sensitivity. There is a heightened level of opinion in today’s time because social media has presented the world with a bunch of platforms so people can express themselves and how they feel,” he told host Amy Morin, who is a licensed therapist.
“So now the things we didn’t hear on a regular basis you are hearing. The conversations you may not have been aware of, well, you are hearing because they’re all happening in real time. With that being said, we can’t lose the idea of laughing at ourselves,” added Hart.
