George Floyd’s Family Slams Kevin Hart Over Roast Joke

George Floyd’s family has had enough. After Tony Hinchcliffe took the stage at Netflix’s Roast of Kevin Hart and delivered a joke about Floyd’s death, the Gianna and George Floyd Foundation is speaking out — and they’re directing much of their anger squarely at Kevin Hart himself.

Hinchcliffe’s line during his set was blunt and ugly: “The Black community is so proud of you… right now George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard he can’t breathe.” The audience laughed. So did Hart. And that’s what’s cutting deepest for the people who loved George Floyd.

Travis Cains, a spokesman for the Gianna and George Floyd Foundation, says Kevin condoning the joke is “sad for the culture.” The family and friends feel Hart should have told Hinchcliffe to stay off that topic entirely — and they’re baffled by what they see as Hinchcliffe’s apparent obsession with making George Floyd the punchline. They’re calling Hinchcliffe a “racist comedian” and asking how Hart would feel if it were one of his friends who had died.

The foundation made their broader message clear: “We are trying to rebuild things for our community and make things better in our community. Let’s try to be a little bit more positive and not sit up there doing colon inspections by white comedians.”

What makes this land even harder is that Floyd’s daughter, Gianna, is 12 years old now. She was only 6 when her father was killed. According to the foundation, she’s currently being bullied at school — and jokes like this don’t make that any easier.

On X, fans echoed the family’s frustration, criticizing Hart for fostering an environment where, in their view, that kind of humor was not just permitted but rewarded with laughter. The image of Hart laughing at the punchline has been circulating widely and has become a focal point of the backlash.

This Wasn’t Hinchcliffe’s First George Floyd Joke

This is actually the second time Hinchcliffe has gone to this well. At the 2024 Roast of Tom Brady, he joked that Rob Gronkowski “looked like the final boss in George Floyd the video game.” That one drew criticism too. The fact that he returned to the same subject two years later — this time with Hart’s roast as the platform — is what’s pushing Floyd’s family and supporters from frustrated to furious.

Hinchcliffe is no stranger to this territory. The dark insult comic got his start writing for Comedy Central’s roast series, penning jokes for the roasts of James Franco, Justin Bieber, and Rob Lowe. He built a following through his close friendship with Joe Rogan, opened for him numerous times, and eventually relocated to Austin in 2020 to be part of Rogan’s comedy community. He hosts the popular “Kill Tony” podcast and has released specials on Netflix and YouTube.

But his career has been defined as much by controversy as by his specials. In May 2021, video surfaced of Hinchcliffe using an anti-Asian slur against comedian Peng Dang, who had just opened for him at a show in Austin. He mocked Dang with Asian stereotypes and called audience members “race traitors” for laughing at Dang’s jokes. The video went viral, and Hinchcliffe was dropped from his agency and lost multiple brand deals.

His response at the time was defiant. “It was so dumbfounding to me because it was a joke, and my stance is that comedians should never apologize for a joke, should never stop working if everyone comes after them and should never slow down,” he later told Variety. “In fact, they should utilize anything that happens to them for more material.”

Three years after that, Hinchcliffe was tapped to perform at Donald Trump’s 2024 rally in New York City, where he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and made racist jokes about Latino, Black, Jewish, and Palestinian people. The Trump campaign distanced itself from the remarks. Hinchcliffe, again, did not apologize. “I love Puerto Ricans, they’re very smart people,” he said in a statement. “And I apologize to absolutely nobody.”

Despite all of it — or perhaps because of it — he was invited to roast Kevin Hart.

Hinchcliffe Also Targeted Sheryl Underwood’s Late Husband

The George Floyd joke wasn’t the only moment from the roast drawing sharp criticism. Hinchcliffe also mocked Sheryl Underwood’s late husband, who died by suicide in 1990, three years into their marriage. “Her husband committed suicide 3 years into the marriage,” Hinchcliffe said from the stage at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California. “I’ve been sitting next to her for 2 hours and I have to ask: how did he last that long?”

The camera cut to Underwood, 62, laughing in the audience.

Roast host Shane Gillis also took aim at the tragedy multiple times during the show, joking about bridges and the Golden State Warriors logo before telling the crowd he had called Underwood the day before and that she had been enthusiastic about the bit. Underwood has spoken about her husband’s death publicly before — emotionally and with real vulnerability — telling her The Talk co-hosts in 2018: “You will never know. For people who think they know. You’ll never know if it’s clinical depression. You’ll never know if it’s financial stress.” She also revealed he left a note, saying, “what the note does to the person who is still alive is, it shows that the person who is no longer alive has now had the final word.”

Her laughter in the audience didn’t stop the backlash online, where many felt the jokes crossed a line regardless of her reaction.

For the Floyd family, none of this is abstract. Their foundation has been working to rebuild community and create something lasting in George’s name — for Gianna, for the people who loved him, for the culture that mourned him. A 12-year-old girl is going to school and getting bullied because comedians keep making her father the punchline. That’s the reality behind the joke.