Kevin Hart Forced Out as Oscars Host Over Shocking Discovery That He, as a Black Comedian, Has Deployed Jokes Involving the Word "Gay" In the Past

Quick, give me a glass of water so I can spit-take it all out.

The turn of events followed outcry over previous anti-gay tweets, and comments Hart made during stand-up routines nearly 10 years ago. Some of the tweets were feverishly deleted throughout the day on Thursday, leading to an Instagram video from the comedian that only made matters worse for him.

"My team calls me, 'Oh my God, Kevin, everyone’s upset by tweets you did years ago,'" he said in that video. "Guys, I'm nearly 40 years old. If you don't believe that people change, grow, evolve as they get older, I don't know what to tell you. If you want to hold people in a position where they always have to justify the past, do you. I'm the wrong guy, man."

Those words rang as a defiant non-apology for many. Hours later, Hart resurfaced with another video stating that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had given him an ultimatum: Apologize or we'll find a new host.

Forced apologies are what America is all about.

“I chose to pass on the apology,” the 39-year-old actor-comedian said in the video. "The reason why I passed is because I've addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I've addressed it. I've spoken on it. I've said where the rights and wrongs were. I've said who I am now versus who I was then. I've done it. I'm not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I've moved on and I’m in a completely different place in my life."

That, too, rang hollow for many. Less than two hours later, Hart announced via Twitter that he was removing himself from the gig, and he finally offered the apology everyone was looking for.

Wired is just beside itself and just can't even!!!

The several-years-old missives, filled with homophobic slurs, began circulating almost as soon as Hart was announced as the host of next year's Academy Awards ceremony. The 39-year-old actor and comedian deleted many of the messages, including a 2011 tweet in which he wrote that, were his son to play with his daughter's dollhouse, Hart would "break it over his head & say n my voice 'stop that's gay'." But the internet quickly dug up several more crude and cruel statements from his Twitter feed, some of which included terms like "FAT FAG" and jokes about AIDS.

Kevin Hart's forced apology was made, of course, to try to stop the NPCs from ending his career completely. Which they're going to try to do.

posted by Ace of Spades at 05:48 PM

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