Add Kevin Hart to the list of comedians who believe awards shows are not the best environment for the craft.
Hart told Sky News he would never host the Oscars, saying awards shows are “very cold” and not for everyone.
“Those gigs aren’t good gigs for comics,” he said in the U.K. interview. “It’s no shot to the Oscars, no shot to the Globes or anything else. Those just aren’t comedy-friendly environments anymore.”
Hart’s comments come on the heels of Jo Koy receiving criticism after some of his jokes fell flat while hosting the Golden Globes. Koy acknowledged afterward how difficult hosting had been.
“I had fun. It was a moment I’ll always remember,” Koy said on GMA3 the morning after the 2024 awards show, before adding how he felt about the criticisms he got. “I’d be lying if it doesn’t hurt. I hit a little moment there [during the monologue] where I was just like, ‘Ah.’ Hosting is a tough gig. Yes, I am a stand-up comic, but that hosting position is a different style. It’s not the same style.”
Hart isn’t the first to open up about the topic of hosting awards shows following Koy’s rough outing. Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Martin both came to the comic’s defense.
The View co-host echoed the sentiment about how difficult hosting can be, especially for someone who has never been in the room before. It’s either hit or miss.
“I love Jo Koy. He makes me just crazy because he’s funny,” Goldberg said. “I don’t know whether it was the room. I don’t know whether the jokes. I didn’t get to see it. But I do know that he is as good as it gets when it comes to stand-up.”
As for the Only Murders in the Building star, he joked that he was still “throwing up” from his own hosting gig in 2010, so he tips his hat to anyone who steps onto a stage and does it.
“So, Congratulations to Jo Koy, who took on the toughest gig in show business, hit, missed, was light on his feet,” Martin wrote on Threads, “and now has twenty minutes of new material for his stand up!”
Hart was going to be the Oscars host in 2019 but stepped aside after past offensive tweets of his came to light. However, David Letterman — whose infamous 1995 Oscars hosting woes became the gold standard for how quickly it can go off the rails — told THR‘s Scott Feinberg in a 25-year anniversary of the night that he believes Hart would be a great host.
“I thought that Kevin Hart was a genius choice,” Letterman said in the 2020 interview. “The first time this kid was on my show … he did not do a pre-interview. Kevin said to the segment producer, Brian Teta, ‘Don’t worry, I can make anything funny.’ And I thought, ‘OK …’ And he sits down and, oh my God, everything was funny! I just thought, ‘Woah! This is something unique!’ So I was kind of eager to see what that would have been.”
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