Comedy veteran Steve Harvey caused a bit of debate online after the longtime funnyman shared his personal “Mount Rushmore of Comedians,” which included Kevin Hart, Dave Chapelle, and Chris Rock.
The “Kings of Comedy” star shared his thoughts during a recent appearance on the latest episode of A&E’s “Right To Offend: The Black Comedy Revolution.”
“Richard Pryor is a stand-alone dude, you know. If there was a Mount Rushmore, he don’t even get on the mountain,” the “Family Feud” host said. Harvey praised the late comedic icon, stating, “He’s a whole peak by hisself; he’s Mount Hood. Now, you can come up with your Mount Rushmore of Comedy, and you can put some people up there you want, but not Pryor. Pryor is a standalone entity.”
The 65-year-old later shared some kind words about Eddie Murphy as well, noting that, like his “Harlem Nights” co-star, Harvey said, “Eddie Murphy is a peak by himself. Nothing we can do with them, boys. They not included; that ain’t gonna happen.”
However, the two legends aside, the longtime television host said when it came to his list of the greatest to ever do it: “When you put stand-ups in a rock, it’s Dave Chapelle in that rock, it’s Chris Rock in that rock, it’s Kevin Hart in that rock, and the Kings of Comedy is a collective group in that rock.”
The comedian added, “Them damn Kings of Comedy, man, Kevin Hart, Chris Rock, and Dave Chapelle is it. And feel how you wanna feel, and if you feel any different, it’s ’cause you ain’t been doing this long as me, and your a– don’t know what I know. Trust and believe, that’s a bad-a– Mount Rushmore.”
Harvey’s comment sparked a debate online regarding criteria and race. As one critic pointed out in a lengthy statement where the YouTube comments of where a brief clip was posted shared, “If we put race aside, it changes everything and the Mount Rushmore of comedy gets a lot more difficult.”
They added, “Richard Pryor is still there for sure in my mind, but the reason I hesitate with Eddie Murphy is because while he was absolutely incredible in his heyday, he walked away to do everything else instead. Part of being a stand-up comic is that it’s a calling. If he came back and did it now and still killed it like he did back then, sure.”
The user went on to mention the likes of Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Rodney Dangerfield, Sam Kinison, and the late Robin Williams before stating, “Even Bill Cosby gets a nod here in spite of his recent issues, because without him, you probably don’t have Pryor, Murphy or so many of the others that Steve Harvey named. A top four just has too many snubs.”
Another person added, “There may be guys who should go before Kevin hart. I’m thinking maybe Martin Lawrence. He put on a lot of guys in the game. I first saw Cedric Bernie and Dl on def comedy jam that I was watching because of Martin. Martin goes way back as well. Like spike lees do the right thing early house party early just my opinion.”
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