Lil Rel Blasts Tony Hinchcliffe’s George Floyd Roast Joke

Lil Rel Howery has something to say — and he said it directly, clearly, and without apology.

In a three-minute video posted to Instagram earlier this week, the comedian and Get Out actor sounded off on Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about George Floyd during The Roast of Kevin Hart, which aired on Netflix on May 10. Howery wasn’t at the event — he was filming a movie and missed the “Netflix Is a Joke” festival entirely — but once he caught up with the roast, he had thoughts.

He opened by giving credit where it was due. Regina Hall, Katt Williams, and Hart himself all got shoutouts. But Hinchcliffe’s moment at the mic? A different story entirely.

“What I am annoyed by, and I’m just keeping it one hundred y’all… I don’t understand, it’s one thing to roast the people that’s there,” Howery said. “It’s one thing to roast the people who may be in the audience. Roasting someone No. 1 that’s dead, No. 2 that’s not there, No. 3 that the implications of why you shouldn’t joke about that… Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about George Floyd didn’t make f-cking sense to me. It was no reason to bring George Floyd into this. It was just disgusting.”

The joke in question came near the end of Hinchcliffe’s set. Praising Hart’s success, he said: “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.” Hart doubled over laughing. The audience, by most accounts, went along with it.

That audience reaction — or lack of the right one — is exactly what got under Howery’s skin.

“The audience was OK boo’ing Draymond Green every time his name was mentioned. Y’all could boo! But you don’t boo Tony Hinchcliffe right after that?” he said. “I get it man, I’m OK not being part of this clique bullsh-t that’s going on in comedy. I 100 percent would have booed that muthaf-ka and probably walked out. That’s all I’m saying, y’all.”

He acknowledged that people can be overly sensitive sometimes — but drew a hard line here. “Why can’t we just agree that bringing up George Floyd in the way he did it was f-cked up and not funny and not needed? It wasn’t even needed! I ain’t like that sh-t.”

Floyd’s Family Speaks Out — and the Hurt Is Real

The backlash didn’t stop with Howery. Travis Cains, a spokesman for The Gianna and George Floyd Foundation, told TMZ that Hart condoning the joke was “sad for the culture” — and that Floyd’s family and friends are flat-out appalled that Hinchcliffe was invited back to another Netflix roast at all.

This isn’t the first time Hinchcliffe has gone here. During The Roast of Tom Brady in 2024, he told Rob Gronkowski he “looked like the final boss in George Floyd the video game.” The pattern isn’t lost on Floyd’s family, who reportedly view Hinchcliffe as having a disturbing fixation on using Floyd as a punchline — and who describe him as a “racist comedian.”

In their official statement, the foundation didn’t mince words: “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.”

The hurt extends well beyond the adults in the room. Floyd’s daughter Gianna was six years old when her father was killed in May 2020. She’s now 12 — and according to the foundation, she’s been bullied at school in part because platforms keep making her father’s death into a joke. That’s the part of this conversation that tends to get lost when people debate the abstract merits of roast comedy.

Activist Tamika Mallory also weighed in on Instagram, writing: “There is literally NOTHING funny about how George Floyd was murdered. Allowing that white man or any other man to stand up there and disrespect Us, while laughing, is disgusting. Part of the reason Black folks continue to face SEVERE attacks against our rights, is because some of us think everything is sh–s and giggles. It wasn’t funny AT ALL.”

Comedian Loni Love and Melissa Fredericks — wife of Kevin “KevOnStage” Fredericks — also publicly criticized the roast’s jokes as “anti-Black” and unfunny. On Threads, comedian Franchesca Ramsey offered a more measured but pointed take: “If your perspective as a comedian is ‘nothing is off limits,’ that means you accept that some jokes will offend people. People not liking racist jokes aren’t ‘ruining comedy.’ People are allowed to not like things.”

Tiffany Haddish Has a Different Take — and a Pointed Parting Shot

Not everyone in the comedy world is on the same page. Tiffany Haddish, who was in the audience at the Kia Forum that night, told TMZ she didn’t actually hear the Floyd joke because she had stepped away.

“It was so much fun,” she said of the roast overall. “I think it should have been shorter; the show was too long. I didn’t hear the George Floyd joke because I had to pee so bad. I was a glorified seat filler and I was tired.”

When the interviewer brought up the comedians who’d publicly criticized the show — including Loni Love — Haddish paused, then delivered a line that landed like a punchline of its own: “Is this all comedians saying it that wasn’t invited?” Then she walked off.

Sheryl Underwood, who was roasted herself during the event — including a joke about her late husband’s death by suicide, delivered by Hinchcliffe — chose to clap back on stage rather than show hurt. Her response to Hinchcliffe was sharp: “Question for the day is, who has had more Black d–k in this town? Me or Chelsea Handler? The answer is Tony Hinchcliffe.” Afterward, she told TMZ Live, “Sometimes political correctness does not fit in comedy. Freedom of speech is alive and well, and it’s alive on Netflix.”

Hart himself posted a video defending the spirit of the roast format. “That, my friends, is what the f–k a roast is supposed to be,” he said. “It’s goddamn hard-hitting, relentless jokes of no consequence. Leave the emotions and the feelings at the front f–king door.”

The roast also featured a genuinely surprising moment — Hart and longtime rival Katt Williams publicly burying their feud on stage — and the star-studded audience included Usher, Teyana Taylor, Venus and Serena Williams, and Jennifer Lopez. But in the days since, it’s Hinchcliffe’s 20 seconds at the mic that have overshadowed everything else.

Howery’s final word on it was simple and stayed with people: “Everything isn’t comedy.”

Gianna Floyd is 12 years old. She goes to school. And somewhere out there, people are still debating whether her father’s last words are good roast material.