Overview
- On Thursday Stephen A. Smith told his SiriusXM show he was blindsided by a joke from Kevin Hart and that being named on Hart’s “Mount Rushmore of racism” “stung like hell.”
- Hart’s Netflix special included a gag listing Shane Gillis, Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan and Smith as his “Mount Rushmore of racism,” which circulated widely after the roast premiered earlier this month.
- Smith defended his record of work for his community on air and said he could respond more harshly but chose not to do so in public.
- Smith alleged that some people connected to the Democratic Party have tried to silence him, and several outlets reported he raised those claims during the same SiriusXM episode.
- The roast has drawn broad criticism for several tasteless lines, including a George Floyd joke and a writers’ room critics called insufficiently diverse, and the episode has sharpened debate over whether headline talent or writers bear responsibility for offensive material.