One thing is very clear about people from St. Louis: They stick up for their own as did Nelly and Cedric The Entertainer while discussing Katt Williams’ claims about Cedric stealing his joke.
Cedric admitted that he’s “not an internet dude” but people such as Nelly called him about Williams’ scathing interview in January, where he accused “The Original Kings of Comedy” star of stealing one of his best jokes about white people traveling to space to get away from Black people for the 2000 comedy special.
The accusation was publicly made by Williams during a 2021 episode of “The Morning Hustle.” Cedric denied it then, and Williams brought it up again during his “Club Shay Shay” appearance.
Many supposedly called Cedric about the interview saying, “What’s up with the lil dude?” said Nelly during a recent sit-down for “The Shop” podcast. Others asked, “When dude pull up what you wanna do?”
The 59-year-old said it’s common to hear similar jokes in comedy “sure,” but Williams “was claiming cultural appropriation, in my opinion.”
“Driving an old car, rolling up the windows, that’s ’70s. If I ask anybody how you drive your car and that’s that,” Cedric explained. “You can’t say my joke about a spaceship is your joke about driving a car ’cause we doing the same gestures. That’s my opinion about it.”
Podcast co-host Maverick Carter backed up Ced’s points, adding that people were doing that same gesture in the ’60s. Nelly then adds, “The hypocrisy about it is he stole JB Smooth’s joke.”
In defense of the accusations against Cedric, another comedian blasted Williams for doing the exact thing he accused Cedric of: stealing a joke from another comedian. “Black Jesus” star Corey Holcomb alleged that Williams stole the joke from standup comic and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star J.B. Smoove.
Smoove performed the joke that anybody could walk out to or do anything to a specific track playing before saying, “That’s my s—t” after the music stopped and using the music as part of his routine in “Def Comedy Jam” in 1996. Williams had a DJ play Rick Ross’ single “Hustlin’” for the audience during 2007’s “Katt Williams: American Hustle.”
“I dare somebody to say this ain’t true ’cause I can get a thousand comics to back me up,” said Holcomb at the time. “I root for Katt, I root for Katt, but that joke where he do like, ‘Man, if you listen to this song, you can do anything off this song. That’s J.B. Smoove joke, homie.”
Corey Holcomb says Katt Williams stole a famous joke from JB Smoove pic.twitter.com/M2cpGs5fKv
— Peddy Tendergrass (@mybad5141) January 5, 2024
Similarly to Holcomb, Cedric said he has no issues with the “Pimpin, Pimpin'” star but he questioned why he never approached him personally about stealing the joke.
“I think he’s dope and not for the bull—t he did. But I’m talking about as a comedian. And so I’m like I’ve been around this dude many times, which was my whole point. It’s like we’ve never had a personal conversation about that,” he stated. “Because if we rock with each other and I see you and you, like, that you feel that way, then say that to me, don’t do that later.”
One oKatt Williams accused Cedric The Entertainer of stealing his closing joke
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 3, 2024
“1998, I’m doing this joke, it’s on Comic View … 2 years later, he’s doing that as his last joke … and he’s doing it verbatim, he’s just turned my car into a spaceship.” pic.twitter.com/8lj95eOHN2
The “Johnson Family Vacation” actor went on stating that he’s above drama because “I don’t wake up worried about that, dog. I’ve been doing this. I am me.”
