Newly crowned Oscars host Kevin Hart is attempting to scrub away several anti-gay tweets he posted years ago as he opts for a more Academy-friendly image. But like a gay elephant, Twitter never forgets.
In the days following his announcement that he would be emceeing the 2019 Academy Awards, the comedian quietly deleted several old “jokes” from his Twitter page that he knew would come back to bite him in the rear.
Related: Kevin Calls Cowboys & Indians Party Backlash ‘Dumb Sh*t’
One since deleted tweet from 2011 read:
“Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay’”
There are plenty more he wiped from his page. However, the Night School star’s social media purification was too little, too late.
The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee already had the controversial tweets handy, and he tweeted screenshots from some of them in which Hart wrote that someone looked like “a gay bill board for AIDS” and called someone else a “FAT F**.”
https://twitter.com/benfraserlee/status/1070413541012893696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeednews.com%2Farticle%2Fmichaelblackmon%2Fkevin-hart-homophobic-tweets-gay-oscars
Lee’s receipts were likely on standby because he wrote a piece documenting the actor’s history of making anti-gay comments, citing one 2010 stand-up bit where he said that “one of [his] biggest fears is [his] son growing up and being gay.”
Hart insisted that while he would do what he could to prevent his son from being queer, he wasn’t homophobic and had “nothing against gay people.” But before 2011, around the time his career started taking off, the actor had no problem mocking gays on the reg.
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/P8nTOilFgx pic.twitter.com/6uzPhnvt4F
— Adam B. Vary (@adambvary) December 5, 2018
In another tweet from 2009, he wrote:
“I just saw the biggest gay guy ever! This n***a looked like hulf hogan with heels on! I can’t lie I got scared!!!!!!”
Naturally, these resurfaced remarks have made Twitter want to break Hart’s phone over his head and say in unison, “Stop, that’s homophobic.”
While he’s yet to directly address the controversy, the comedian did share a telling post on social media:
Hmmm. It’ll be interesting to see if the 39-year-old apologizes, seeing that he boasts an unapologetic attitude about the public taking offense to things he’s said or done.
The Oscars have removed celebs from the ceremony for using anti-gay comments before, though, so Hart might just have to submit to the critics on this one.
[Image via WENN.]
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