INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Michael Che Slams Academy Awards For Pressuring Kevin Hart To Step Down

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 23:19 PST, Dec 8, 2018

While there have notably been a lot of individuals to come forward and agree with the decision to replace Kevin Hart with someone else as the host for the 2019 Oscars, not everyone agrees with the pressure the Academy Awards placed on the comedian to apologize or pass.

According to Entertainment Tonight, Michael Che took an opportunity during his “Weekend Update” segment on Saturday Night Live to take a dig at the Academy Awards for the hypocrisy surrounding the decision to pressure Hart to step down as the host of the 2019 Oscars because of offensive tweets he made seven years ago.

“Well, that was short,” Che joked as a picture of Hart along with a tagline announcing his decision to step down as the 2019 Oscars’ host appeared on the screen.

“Kevin Hart had to step down as host of the upcoming Academy Awards because of homophobic tweets from 2011,” Michael announced as he appeared to be struggling to contain laughter.

“But didn’t the Academy nominated Mel Gibson for an award just last year?” The comedian questioned as he indirectly called the Academy a hypocrite.

“Right!” A member of the audience could be heard agreeing with Che during the segment.

Michael continued to slam the Academy by pointing out the fact that they were not going to find a cleaner “black comic” than Kevin Hart to host the 2019 Oscars.

“If Kevin Hart isn’t clean enough to host the Oscars then no black comic is.”

Che ended his segment and grill of the Academy by taking one small jab at comedian Bill Cosby, “The only black comic I know that’s cleaner than Kevin Hart is booked for the next three to 10 years.”

As those who have been following the 2019 Oscars host controversy know, shortly after Hart was confirmed as the host, offensive tweets he had published back in 2011 started to resurface on social media. It didn’t take long before Hart took to Instagram to defend himself in a video explaining that he had apologized for what he had said in the past. However, he had also grown and changed since then.

Hart later posted a second video revealing the Academy had called him and told him he either needed to apologize for the offensive tweets or step down as the host. Kevin made the decision to step down as he didn’t feel the need to continue to apologize for something in his past that he had already previously apologized for.

Michael Che isn’t the only one to take issue with the hypocrisy surrounding the Academy’s decision to push Hart out of the hosting position. Nick Cannon recently started retweeting offensive tweets other big names in Hollywood had published over the years, drawing attention to the fact that Hart was not alone.

Share this article: Michael Che Slams Academy Awards For Pressuring Kevin Hart To Step Down
Saturday Night Live Kevin Hart
More from Inquisitr