The Kevin Hart Roast Jokes Netflix Cut

Netflix’s Roast of Kevin Hart was three hours of glorious, uncensored chaos — but the version that aired on Sunday night wasn’t even the sharpest cut. Comedy writer Madison Sinclair, who worked behind the scenes crafting material for several of the night’s roasters, has since revealed a batch of jokes that never made it to air, including one that took a pointed swipe at First Lady Melania Trump.

The line was written for Tony Hinchcliffe — the comedian perhaps best known for calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at a Donald Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in 2024 — and it read: “Tony is like Melania: The only thing relevant about him is that he opened for Trump once.” Clean, surgical, and apparently too hot for Netflix. Sinclair shared the joke with Variety, though no explanation was given for why it didn’t make the final cut.

It’s not hard to guess why someone might have gotten cold feet. The political climate around jokes involving the first family has turned genuinely treacherous. Just weeks earlier, Jimmy Kimmel’s quip that Melania had “the glow of an expectant widow” — a reference, many assumed, to the president’s age — prompted Mrs. Trump to accuse him of “hateful and violent rhetoric” and demand ABC News take action against him. President Trump renewed his push to have Kimmel removed from the air. Against that backdrop, a joke landing Melania in the same sentence as a comedian with a controversial license plate (“iRoast” — another Sinclair cut) starts to look less like a punchline and more like a liability.

What Else Got Left on the Cutting Room Floor

The Melania line was far from the only casualty. Sinclair’s unused material painted a picture of a roast that could have gone considerably harder. Among the discarded jokes:

On Kevin Hart’s participation in the Saudi government-funded Riyadh Comedy Festival: “Kevin, I was so disappointed when you did the Riyadh Comedy Festival because on a human-rights level no one should be forced to listen to your comedy sober.”

On Hart and the MeToo era: “Kevin is one of the few comedians without a single allegation. When he found out about the MeToo movement he was shocked. He was like, people are saying no to things?!”

On Lizzo’s acting debut in Hustlers: “Lizzo broke barriers when she danced as a stripper in Hustlers, mostly because they weren’t properly enforced.”

On Shane Gillis and his military record: “Shane Gillis only lasted two weeks in basic training. The closest he’s come to becoming a veteran is his views on Asians.”

And a deadpan Chelsea Handler burn that was really a two-for-one: “You might know Chelsea from being on E! for over a decade… she also had a famous talk show for a while.”

Sinclair, who has also written for The Roast of Alec Baldwin and the OnlyFans roasts of Whitney Cummings, told Playboy that she’s never interested in writing a roast where she’s comfortable with every joke she hears. “That’s kind of the fun of them,” she said. Her philosophy: if you’re going to go after a sensitive topic, the punchline better be worth it. “If you’re going to make fun of a sensitive topic, you better have a really smart joke about it. And the punchline isn’t just that — you’re saying a slur.”

Pete Davidson’s Most Controversial Night

The jokes that did make air weren’t exactly tame. Pete Davidson had arguably the most combustible set of the evening, targeting Hinchcliffe with a line that’s still generating outrage: “Tony reminds me of Charlie Kirk, in that he’s definitely been on camera letting a guy unload in his throat.”

Kirk, the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder, was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. The alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, has appeared in court via video. Davidson’s joke, delivered just eight months after Kirk’s death, landed poorly with a significant portion of the audience — and the backlash online was immediate.

“Anything goes in comedy, but this ain’t it. Charlie was murdered just 8 months ago, and we wonder why people have become so desensitized to political violence,” one person wrote on X. Another posted: “Pete Davidson just showed what kind of person he is. Pathetic, sick, no decency.” A third went after Davidson’s personal history: “What makes this even worse is that he lost his father on 9/11. He understands the pain of growing up without a dad, but he’s joking about a man whose children will now grow up without theirs.”

Even within conservative circles, the reaction was measured rather than scorched-earth. Blake Neff, a producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, addressed it on X: “I didn’t like it, and I’m glad the audience wasn’t into it, but there are other ‘jokes’ we’ve seen that are clearly a lot more hateful in intent than Pete’s, and a few bad-taste jokes about Charlie are the price we have to pay for how iconic he has become in American culture.” Turning Point USA did not comment. As of Monday, Davidson hadn’t addressed the backlash publicly, and Netflix has continued streaming the special without edits.

Davidson also used his set to reopen another famous wound. Reflecting on his 2022 feud with Kanye West — which ignited when Davidson dated Kim Kardashian and Ye went on a very public, very unhinged campaign against him — Davidson quipped: “I was in a beef with Kanye, so I’ve taken shots from better gay Nazis.” The line doubled as a reference to West’s antisemitic remarks from that same period, for which Kanye later issued a public apology, saying: “I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”

The Moments That Actually Brought the House Down

Not everything was controversy. Tom Brady showed up ready to settle scores after Hart roasted him mercilessly at Netflix’s 2024 Tom Brady special. Walking out mid-show, Brady delivered a callback to Hart’s 2017 cheating scandal — footage of Hart with model Montia Sabbag in Las Vegas was allegedly used in an extortion attempt, leading to a very public apology to his then-pregnant wife Eniko — with the kind of precision you’d expect from a seven-time Super Bowl champion.

“All right, this won’t take long, because, as you guys know, I’m a busy man,” Brady said. “But I do have a few words for you before I return to my affairs in Las Vegas… Oh, wait, I’m talking about affairs in Las Vegas. Was that off? Not supposed to talk about affairs in Vegas? I think I broke another rule. F*** it. I talked about it.” Eniko was in the audience. She laughed.

Brady also confused Chelsea Handler for Nikki Glaser, saying “What happened to Nikki Glaser? She looks like s–t” before doing a double take: “Oh, my bad. Sorry, Chelsea.” He then turned to Hart and delivered what might have been the evening’s most personal jab: “Unlike your real dad, I actually showed up” — Hart was raised primarily by his mother — before presenting him with a jersey in “newborn size.”

Dwayne Johnson, meanwhile, suggested Hart’s wife deserved “an Academy Award” for pretending to enjoy sleeping with him. Hart sat onstage and took it all.

But the night’s most electric moment belonged to Katt Williams, who arrived as a surprise guest and spent his set doing what he’s spent years perfecting: making Kevin Hart’s life difficult. The two have had a complicated, very public history — Williams went scorched-earth on Hart during his viral 2024 Club Shay Shay appearance, alleging that Hart had repeatedly taken roles originally offered to Williams. Hart had responded by calling any engagement with Williams “extremely beneath me.”

Williams wasted no time establishing why he’d come. “I was surprised they invited me. That’s how little star power you have. They had to start inviting your enemies. I said, ‘I hate him.’ They said, ‘Come anyway.’” He then addressed Hart’s Diddy party attendance — another topic from the Club Shay Shay episode — with characteristic precision: “I want to be clear: just because Kevin went to Diddy parties does not mean he did something wrong. The fact that he gets all quiet when you bring it up — that means he did something wrong!”

By the end of his set, Hart reached out. “I wanna be a brother, I wanna be a friend. Katt, I wanna move on. Can we move on? Can we do that?” Williams shook his hand and pulled him into an embrace. Whether it was a genuine peace offering or just good television is, depending on who you ask on TikTok, still very much up for debate — Williams never actually said yes.

The Roast of Kevin Hart is streaming now on Netflix.