Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, comedian and actor Kevin Hart was in the middle of pitching future roast candidates when host Jimmy Kimmel threw out a name that Hart was having absolutely none of.
Hart had already suggested LeBron James as an ideal target, citing the basketball superstar’s cultural weight and broad appeal. But the moment Kimmel floated Oprah, Hart shut the conversation down with characteristic flair.
“What about Oprah? Would that be unacceptable?” Kimmel asked.
“That’d be like spray painting the Sistine Chapel,” Hart fired back. “If I found out that Oprah said she wanted to do it, I’m driving 100 miles per hour to Oprah’s house. You cannot do this. No shot.”
Fresh From the Hot Seat
Hart’s spirited defence of Oprah came less than a month after he himself endured three hours in the roast chair as part of the Netflix Is a Joke Festival — a marathon session that brought out comedians and celebrity friends including Chelsea Handler, Pete Davidson, and Katt Williams, all of whom took their best shots at the Ride Along star.
AFI Honours Eddie Murphy With Lifetime Achievement Award At Dolby Theatre
When Kimmel pressed him on whether any joke had actually landed a genuine blow, Hart admitted that it was Dwayne Johnson who managed to catch him off guard — and the method was as unexpected as it was effective.
Johnson produced a photograph of Hart’s father alongside a mugshot of the same man, then held it next to a photo of his own late father, wrestler Rocky Johnson, looking every inch the picture of athletic poise.
“Dwayne had the picture of my father and he had a mugshot of my dad and he goes, ‘Look at my dad. Kev, we both love our dads,'” Hart recalled — a punchline that, by his own admission, hit differently from everything else that evening.