Katt Williams is amazingly funny and highly underrated. From his first on-screen role as “Money Mike” in “Friday After Next,” to his role in Damon Wayans’ television sitcom “My Wife and Kids,” and guest spots on the sitcom “Blackish,” he has brought his bombastic personality and unvarnished truth to film and television for decades now, and has made a success of it. However, he is not a household name, and he joined ESPN’s Shannon Sharpe on his “Club Shay Shay” podcast to spill the tea—or rather some highly expensive cognac—and discuss his more than 30-year career, his experiences, and insights into the supposed fraternity of stand-up comics.
As with most things out of Hollywood, all that glitters is not necessarily gold.
In the almost three-hour interview, Williams took no prisoners, throwing major shade at fellow comedians like Rickey Smiley, Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey, and Kevin Hart. Williams complimented Sharpe on creating “a safe place for the truth to be told,” then he dropped the hammer: “I have watched all of these low-brow comedians come here and disrespect you to your face and tell you straight-up lies!”
On January 3, the internet was stopped in its tracks by precisely this as Williams sat down for a nearly three-hour tour-de-force interview with ESPN First Take correspondent Shannon Sharpe on his podcast, Club Shay Shay. “The reason I had to come is because you’ve made a safe place for the truth to be told,” Williams said at the top of the interview. “And I have watched all of these lowbrow comedians come here and disrespect you in your face and tell you straight-up lies.” Was he there to “set the record straight”? Sharpe asked in reply. Apparently so.
Williams first called out actor Rickey Smiley, saying that Smiley lied to Sharpe when he claimed that he was originally cast to play Money Mike in “Friday After Next,” but ended up playing the Santa Claus role. Williams set him straight.
WATCH:
Katt Williams fried Rickey Smiley and Tyler Perry 😂 pic.twitter.com/pmVlNXFAco
— DJ Green Villain (@DJGreenVillain) January 3, 2024
Rickey Smiley can’t act, because Rickey Smiley can’t act, he told Sharpe. Him and Tyler Perry can’t play a man to save their life.
Ouch.
Williams also said that the original script had the character Money Mike being raped, and Williams convinced the writers to remove this from the script.
The problem with “Friday After Next” is, we’re trying to make a classic comedy. And this comedy involves a rape, and rape is never funny no matter who it happens to or what the circumstances are.
Williams said he spoke with the producers and asked,
If you would allow me to allow us to do this movie without a black man getting raped in it, I promise you it will be twice as funny as it would be with him getting raped.
This was quite groundbreaking for its time: an actor who was not the headline star having script input. It reflects Williams’ unbending standard concerning his brand of comedy. Williams takes complete ownership of any acting, voiceover, or scripting role he takes on, and there are certain lines he refuses to cross; unlike some of his colleagues.
Williams paid homage to comedian Mark Curry (who originated the sitcom “Hanging with Mr. Cooper”) for helping him refine a closing joke he performed on the BET program “ComicView.” A joke that Williams alleges Cedric the Entertainer stole from him and performed in “The Original Kings of Comedy.” It’s quite an epic and eye-opening rant, and Sharpe questions Williams on whether he’s just being a tad petty.
Winners are not allowed to allow losers to rewrite history, Williams said. I don’t say any of these things if my name is not breached by these people on your platform. If you give a liar a platform to lie I’m not being messy by saying, “Hold on, that never happenef, it isn’t untrue, and there are hundreds of witnesses for each thing I am saying.”
WATCH:
Katt Williams talking about Cedric The Entertainer stealing his jokes and the problem he got with Steve Harvey, Shannon Sharpe got one with this interview pic.twitter.com/Zwgk0ELDFo
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) January 3, 2024
Williams then lit into Kevin Hart and proclaimed he was a Hollywood plant. Williams was not the first one to hurl Jell-O in this food fight. Kevin Hart has gone on record alleging that Williams is a whiner who had the same opportunities he had, but Williams whiffed it. Hart also alleged that Williams’ “failures” were due to narcotics (watch the video here).
Williams’s response:
Warning: coarse language
Katt Williams calls Kevin Hart an industry PLANT!!🚨 pic.twitter.com/HM7AG8I8wt
— Puppy Churro (@lalawosala) January 3, 2024
For a five-year period, every single movie that Kevin Hart did was a movie that had been on my desk. All I had said was ‘Can we take some of this Stepin Fetchit sh*t out and then I can do it? It don’t need to be overtly homosexual ’cause I’m not homosexual. It doesn’t need that to be funny, right?’ And me saying that and them going, ‘Oh yeah, no problem,’ and then going to give it to this other guy and having him doing it just like it was and acting like I’m a bad person ’cause I keep standing on my standard.
Black business entrepreneur Dr. Boyce Watkins has expressed similar sentiments about Hart and how he perpetuates a certain brand of comedy that is acceptable to all audiences, no matter how demeaning it might be to the image of Black men.
What is getting less press is Williams giving his reasons on why he has been blackballed and lied about by these major names.
WATCH:
Comedy hasn’t been this interesting since the Late Night Wars between Dave Letterman and Jay Leno. This is also an overarching mirror on what is occurring all around us: in politics, culture, and academia. From Harvard’s Claudine Gay and her plagiarism to Nikki Haley’s pro-illegal sympathies, to Jeffrey Epstein and the named and unnamed cretins in the court documents, truth is being revealed, inconvenient instances are being exposed, and unlikely suspects are being unmasked.
And it’s only January. Buckle up, folks; if this comedy throw-down is any indication, 2024 is going to be a wild ride.
