Kevin Hart Leads the Roastiest Mark Twain Prize Ceremony Ever
25/03/2024 20:02
It is correct to say that Kevin Hart was honored on March 24 with the Mark Twain Prize, an award given annually by the Kennedy Center to a comedian who has made a large and lasting impact on American culture. It is also correct — perhaps even more correct — to say that on Sunday night in Washington, D.C., inside the Kennedy Center's Concert Hall and in front of over 2,000 people, Hart got his ass roasted. Repeatedly.
Okay, yes: His ass was roasted with love by fellow comedians who know and/or have worked with him, including Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Tiffany Haddish, and his frequent co-star Regina Hall. All of them were clearly happy to pay tribute to a stand-up comic who sells out arenas and stars in popular movies yet somehow has time for an infinite number of side hustles, including but not limited to producing television shows, popping up in a seemingly infinite number of Capital One commercials, and starting a chain of plant-based fast-casual restaurants. (It's true! See?) But his friends and colleagues also seemed plenty eager to keep cranking up the flames on the grill.
They gave Hart shit on a number of fronts, starting right out of the gate with Seinfeld, who invited the audience to wonder why he even bothered to show up at this thing. "Do you think I'm doing this because I owe Kevin Hart a favor?" asked the man who has frequently driven in cars with comedians, including Hart, while getting coffee. "Or maybe I like the idea of Kevin Hart owing me a favor? I'm not gonna tell you." Then he added, "I can't think of much that Kevin Hart can do for me. Can you? I don't want to be in Jumanji."
Some went the obvious route by making jokes about Hart's height. Jimmy Fallon, channeling Johnny Cash, sang an entire song about how short Hart is. "He's got a certain flair, buys his clothes at Build-A-Bear," Fallon twanged while strumming an acoustic guitar and wearing a black cowboy hat. "He's so humble and down-to-earth, but his feet don't touch the ground in a chair."
In a similar vein, J.B. Smoove remembered meeting Hart when he was a young, aspiring comedian hanging out at the Laff House in Philadelphia, Hart's hometown. "I'd be like, 'Man, if someone doesn't come over here and get their damn child out of this club,'" Smoove recalled. "'They serve alcohol in here. Who brings an adolescent to a damn comedy club?' But it wasn't an adolescent at all. Little boy had peach fuzz a little bit. It was Kevin!"
Smoove, a.k.a. Leon from Curb Your Enthusiasm, also devoted a huge chunk of his nine-and-a-half-minute remarks to calling out Hart for stealing his jokes. "I also remember how, after I would leave the club to head back to New York City, I wouldn't even make it over the Ben Franklin Bridge before I would get a page causing me to pull over and find a damn pay phone and call my answering service so the operator could relay the message that Kevin was onstage stealing my shit again!" Smoove later added that he could have handled the matter one of two ways: by "going on Club Shay Shay," a reference to Katt Williams's January appearance on Shannon Sharpe's podcast when he accused Hart of being an industry plant, or by airing his grievances "right here at the Kennedy Center at the Mark Twain Prize. And I'm glad it was here!"
The hits kept on coming. Hall called out Hart for his love of cash: "Kevin really cares … about the quality of the check, not the project. Some of that shit is pretty bad, but you know what? This man makes a lot of money." So did Lil Dicky: "Every year, this guy comes out with like 40 different projects, and for at least half of them, you watch it and you think, Oh, he must only be doing this for the money." So did Rock: "Kevin's a smart businessman. He's the first person who ever got paid to get the Mark Twain Prize. That's right, he's getting $100K tonight, ain't you, Kev?" (A Kennedy Center rep confirmed that this was a joke and that Hart was not paid to be a recipient.)
Hall, Haddish, and Chelsea Handler all noted Hart's habit of making social plans or other commitments and then bailing on them. After explaining how Hart had promised to help her cross the border into Canada during COVID by giving her a job on a film he was shooting, Handler dryly said, "That's when I learned that if you ask Kevin for a favor, you can always count on hearing these three words: I've got you. And then you can count on never hearing from him again."
At this point, you may be feeling a little bad for Hart. Don't. He was having the time of his life Sunday night, sitting in a box with his wife, Eniko Hart, and all four of his kids and dying laughing at every jab, including a practical joke played by Nick Cannon. After the announcer led the crowd to believe that surprise guest Eddie Murphy was about to appear, Cannon, looking very much not like Axel Foley, strolled onto the stage. "Eddie Murphy ain't comin' to see your little ass," Cannon shouted. "Gotcha, bitch!"
The language during the Mark Twain Prize ceremony was a bit saltier than usual, perhaps in part because Netflix will stream it for the first time this year after decades of its airing on PBS. By design or by accident, the vibe was a little looser, and the F-bombs were detonated with greater frequency by the comics onstage and in the montages of highlights from Hart's career. But there were heartfelt moments, too, most notably in the speech by Chappelle, who made the final tribute of the night. "I love you so much," he told Hart. "And never forget that I said it, because we only get to talk on podcasts."
"Chris Rock and I would never play an arena before I saw you do it," he continued. "You made me dream bigger when you were younger than me. It's humiliating. But it's inspiring, man."
When Hart finally took the stage to accept his award, he got emotional, particularly while thanking his children — "There is no life in me without you," he told them through tears — and all the people who supported him, both throughout his career and by showing up at the Kennedy Center.
"Although this award means so much and I will never take it for granted, it does not mean more than looking over there and going, Wow, I got Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Dave Chappelle to come out," he said, looking at the box where the three stand-ups were seated side by side like a Mount Rushmore of comedy titans. "There is nothing that can mean more than that."
Of course, when Hart failed to thank Cannon and Smoove by name, both of them stood up and started yelling at him. He had an immediate response: "You think it was an accident? Fuck you, Nick. Okay? I really thought Eddie Murphy was here. J.B., you told everybody I stole my style from you? Fuck you, J.B.!"
If you want to find out how many of those fuck-yous made the final edit of the ceremony, you can watch it on Netflix starting May 11.
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