Kevin Hart tried to do something nice, but of course it blew up in his face. Justifiably, I believe. For months (truly, months) we had to talk about Kevin Hart and whether his old homophobic tweets and comedy routines meant that he was an inappropriate choice to host the Oscars. It wasn’t completely about the fact that Hart’s “comedy” was laced with homophobia for years, it was that he threw a fit when people called him out on it. He could have simply issued a substantive apology (that was all the Academy wanted from him) and people probably would have moved on. Maybe. Anyway, Kevin Hart tried to say something about Jussie Smollett being violently assaulted by MAGA bros. Hart wrote this on his Instagram:

Sending prayers your way @jussiesmollett ….This is unbelievably sad. Why are we going backwards….this is disgusting. We as people have to do better. WTF is going on the world???? Why are we falling in love with hate???? God damn it people….Choose love…I repeat…Choose love. I will forever choose love and I will continue to teach my kids how to do the same. Stand strong brother

[From Hart’s IG]

It’s a nice message, but it didn’t exist in a vacuum. People were like “hey remember all of the homophobic sh-t you used to say and tweet? What happened to Jussie is part of that.”

But keep joking about beating up your kid for being gay, Kevin Hart!

— sam greisman (@SAMGREIS) January 29, 2019

This is why someone’s jokes about beating their gay son were never funny

— Ira (@ira) January 29, 2019

And as added bonus, Ellen DeGeneres got dragged into the criticism too. Remember how she caped for Kevin, like she was in charge of what all LGBTQ folks should feel?

And less than four weeks ago, you sat across from Kevin Hart and said “Don’t let those people win.” But “those people” whom you described as “haters” were queer black people hoping that you’d take the relationship between language and violence more seriously. https://t.co/k7uW8xG9gf

— Saeed Jones (@theferocity) January 30, 2019

Given what we’ve seen so far, I fully expect the men who attacked Jussie Smollett to score a sit-down interview with Ellen at some point in the next few weeks. Maybe it will be a roundtable discussion with Kevin Hart.

— Saeed Jones (@theferocity) January 29, 2019

Photos courtesy of WENN.