Comedian Kevin Hart has deleted old anti-gay tweets after it was announced that he landed the 91st Academy Awards hosting gig. The Motion Picture Academy has come under fire for hiring the comedian who has a history with anti-gay material. As soon as the old tweets were unearthed, Hart quickly went through and deleted them all, going back as far as 2009. Hart has made inappropriate jokes in his stand-up routine as well, which leaves more than a few people wondering why the Academy thought that he was a good fit for the Oscars.
Shortly after the Oscars announcement, a Twitter user went through Kevin Hart’s timeline and compiled a video of every time he used the words f*g, homo, gay. Dozens of tweets come up, but stop in 2011, which is coincidentally when his stand-up started to become successful. In a tweet from 2010, Hart says that someone’s profile pic looks, “like a gay bill board for AIDS.” Another tweet written in 2009 calls someone a “fat faced f*g.” In 2011, Hart tweeted that if he thought his son was playing with dolls, he’d stop him and tell him that it’s “gay.”
In a response to someone dissing Kevin Hart, George Lopez, and Sarah Silverman online, the comedian responded by saying “I bet ur in a gay gang and u do drive by d*ck sucks.” Actor/comedian Billy Eichner reached out on social media to hope that Kevin Hart has changed his thought process since 2011, and many people on social media feel the same way. Journalist Mark Harris had more to say on the matter. He explains.
“(Kevin Hart) is out-of-sync for a year in which Rami Malek, Melissa McCarthy, Olivia Colman, Mahershala Ali, Richard E. Grant, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Lucas Hedges could all get nominated for playing LBGTQ characters.”
These tweets have come back to haunt Kevin Hart, but the Motion Picture Academy has yet to make a statement in regard to the matter. Hart and his management have also yet to respond to a request from GLAAD to discuss the matter further. Many are upset with the Academy’s decision and are wondering if they are going to take any action. The incident comes after tweets have gotten some people in the entertainment industry let go from jobs, like James Gunn for a number of tweets and Roseanne Barr for one single tweet.
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These tweets are all from 8 to 10 years ago, so Kevin Hart might be able to get away with making an apology to keep his Academy Award hosting gig. However, it does put the Motion Picture Academy in a tight spot, and one has to wonder how they will handle the situation. For now, we’ll have to wait and see how the Academy and Hart respond to the different requests. Buzz Feed was the first to report about Kevin Hart’s old anti-gay tweets.
After seeing this @benfraserlee tweet, I did a search for every time Kevin Hart tweeted “fag,” “homo,” or “gay.” It was…a lot. And he seems to have basically stopped tweeting those words after 2011 — i.e. the year his first stand-up movie became a hit. https://t.co/P8nTOilFgxpic.twitter.com/6uzPhnvt4F
— Adam B. Vary (@adambvary) December 5, 2018
I wonder when Kevin Hart is gonna start deleting all his old tweets 🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/ZbYG6SI3Xm
— Benjamin Lee (@benfraserlee) December 5, 2018
Many of us have jokes/tweets we regret. I’m ok with tasteless jokes, depending on context. What bothers me about these is you can tell its not just a joke-there’s real truth, anger & fear behind these. I hope Kevin’s thinking has evolved since 2011. 🌈 https://t.co/U1YgnCyByt
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) December 6, 2018
And he’s an especially out-of-sync choice for a year in which Rami Malek, Melissa McCarthy, Olivia Colman, Mahershala Ali, Richard E. Grant, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz, and Lucas Hedges could all get nominated for playing LGBTQ characters.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) December 6, 2018