Ricky Gervais has fired shots at the Oscars after Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting duties after homophobic tweets from 2011 emerged yesterday.
The American comedian set social media into a spin with such comments as: ‘If I can prevent my son from being gay, I will.’
One from 2011 reads: ‘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 in my voice “stop that’s gay”‘.
It was deleted between Wednesday and Thursday, according to BuzzFeed.
Hart subsequently stood down from the gig, saying he’d addressed his comments previously and wouldn’t apologise for something he has already acknowledged historically. He claimed the Academy presented an ultimatum: pass or apologise and remain as presenter.
In the aftermath of this, Gervais has come out in defence of Hart, and all those who hate ‘offence culture’.
He wrote in a tweet:
Dear c*nts in charge of The Oscars, let me host your show, and I promise I won’t offend anyone. Not even Mel Gibson, who you nominated last year.
The Office co-creator was alluding to Gibson’s controversial anti-semitic comments he made in 2006.
The Academy has yet to comment on the furore or Gervais’ semi-serious offer.
It was Benjamin Lee, an editor at The Guardian, who first pointed out Hart’s forgotten tweets, writing ‘I wonder when Kevin Hart is gonna start deleting all his old tweets.’
Other deleted items include, ‘U should ask the question like this, how many “gay: men sweat when they wear dress shirts because real men don’t lmao p.s fag’ and another criticises a fellow Twitter user for looking like a ‘gay bill board for AIDS.’
Adam B. Vary, a reporter for BuzzFeed, went on to search Hart’s Twitter handle with homophobic terms. What he found was understandably problematic.
He wrote:
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.
The post included a GIF of Adam scrolling down the results he found.
One commenter defended Hart’s old tweets, saying:
Is it possible that he learned, even at a late stage in life, that those terms are cruel and hurtful in a way he hadn’t previously comprehended? Is it possible for a person to change? Even my gay brother used slurs wen he was younger, until he learned better?
Another said:
Blatant homophobia? Where? Are jokes not allowed in society? Should we start legally controlling language so peoples feelings are never hurt? That’s a slippery slope no one wants to go down.
One vented, however:
How is it possible that the Academy isn’t making absolutely sure of this kinda stuff… ya know what, that’s on them! They should have to keep Kevin now and rude out the wave of backlash. Then maybe they won’t do it again.
A fourth added:
Because he’s a famous actor/comedian, he will never get banned. He has also had domestic violence accusations from his ex wife so not who the Oscars should be picking to host the show.
He did a good job of the Golden Globes, Gervais. Might be worth getting him in for the Oscars, tbh.
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