The Roast of Kevin Hart Was Chelsea Handler vs. the Manosphere

Insults were par for the course at The Roast of Kevin Hart, but some jokes had more acid than others. Shane Gillis, who hosted, and Chelsea Handler traded particularly intense barbs at the Netflix Is a Joke centerpiece, and Handler got in some hard knocks on Trump supporter Tony Hinchcliffe.

The back-and-forth began with Gillis, who introduced Handler as “a Zionist” with political criticism. “Not saying that’s a good or bad thing,” he added. “Speaking of dead kids, she’s a big fan of abortions. Chelsea’s been scraped more times than the grill at Benihana.” There’s a branch in midtown that Gillis must have gone to recently because it queued up his next line, too. “Speaking of tossing tiny shrimp into a child’s mouth, Chelsea Handler went to dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house in 2010,” he said, referencing a real dinner she has acknowledged before. “Look it up, there’s articles. It wasn’t like a big party; there were like seven people there. It was like Prince Andrew and Woody Allen were there.” With that, he brought out Handler.

Handler responded directly to Gillis. “Shane, just so you know, Judaism and Zionism are two different things,” she said. “Just like how Chinatown and Koreatown are two different things, but your favorite slur works in both places.” She then burned him for getting fired from Saturday Night Live before even appearing on the show for using anti-Asian slurs. “Shane has been accused of being anti-Asian,” Handler said, “which is ironic given that he has the complexion and physique of a steamed dumpling.”

Handler then turned her attention to both Gillis and Kill Tony podcast host Hinchcliffe, two faces of the so-called manosphere, which is another way of saying Trump supporters loved them in 2024. Handler herself isn’t a fan. She told a stone-faced Hinchcliffe that he is “what happens when women don’t have safe access to abortion care.” “Tony and Shane, this must be so exciting for you guys,” she said. “Usually on Sunday nights, you just burn a cross on someone’s lawn, and tonight you get to roast a whole Black guy.” Handler ended her Hinchcliffe run by asking him, “If you’re here tonight, who’s keeping Joe Rogan’s balls warm in their mouth?” While Hinchcliffe shook his head in disbelief, the audience cheered.

She also called out other male comedians onstage who attended the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, though she didn’t mention anyone by name. “Now that your favorite leader is making the draft mandatory, I assume that all of you will be signing up to go fight the war in Iran,” Handler said. “Or do you tough-talking pussies only go to the Middle East for comedy festivals?” Roasters who attended Riyadh included Pete Davidson, Jeff Ross, and the guest of honor, Hart himself. Ironically, both Gillis and Hinchcliffe have publicly said they turned down the festival. On this one issue, the three are aligned.