Kevin Hart claims he got a 'crash course' after being canceled for homophobic jokes

More than five years after losing his spot hosting the Oscars, actor Kevin Hart is speaking out about the homophobic jokes that cost him the prestigious gig.

Leading up to the Oscars in 2019, social media posts Hart made between 2009 and 2012 resurfaced, featuring jokes mocking lesbians, calling people an anti-gay slur, and writing that one person's photo looked like "a gay bill board for AIDS."

But now the 44-year-old comedian feels reflective about what he learned from the experience. "Sometimes it's OK to take a step back and be educated," he told the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. "I got a crash-course. It was one that was necessary and needed."

Hart also admitted that the swift backlash he faced in the media and from the public was a real "come-to-Jesus moment" for him.
In 2018, immediately after the announcement that he would be the host of the 2019 Oscars, the Jumanji star was forced to resign once he came under fire about old jokes he made at the expense of the LGBTQ+ community, including one where Hart said that if he saw his son play with a dollhouse, he would "break it over his head and say: 'Stop, that's gay.'"

He was also criticized for his 2010 comedy special Seriously Funny, where he explained that one of his "biggest fears" as a father would be having a gay son.

After the anti-LGBTQ+ jokes came to light, he was asked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to post an apology video in order to keep him as the host, but he refused, saying that he's already "addressed this several time," according to Today. Instead he stepped down the prestigious emcee gig, a later wrote on Twitter (now called X) that he didn't "want to be a distraction" and apologized.

"I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past," he wrote.

But Hart was less apologetic in 2021 when he spoke about his old jokes with The Sunday Times. "I mean, I personally don't give a s**t about [cancel culture]," he said, as reported by the Pink News.

"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?"
He continued, "I've been cancelled, what, three or four times? Never bothered," he added. "If you allow it to have an effect on you, it will. Personally? That's not how I operate. I understand people are human. Everyone can change."