(NOTE LANGUAGE) Kevin Hart admits he's made plenty of mistakes and knows he's not the only one -- which is why he says cancel culture is flawed.
Speaking with The Sunday Times, the 41-year-old actor, who admitted to being "canceled, what, three or four times," made a case about why he was "never bothered" by it.
"When did we get to a point where life was supposed to be perfect? Where people were supposed to operate perfectly all the time? I don't understand," said Hart. "I don't expect perfection from my kids. I don't expect it from my wife, friends, employees. Because, last I checked, the only way you grow up is from [screwing] up. I don't know a kid who hasn’t [messed] up or done some dumb [stuff]."
The actor and standup comedian adds that cancel culture should only be invoked if someone does something "truly damaging. ...When you just talk about… nonsense? When you're talking, 'Someone said! They need to be taken [down]!' Shut the [heck] up! What are you talking about?"
Hart says comedy has suffered because comedians are too afraid of being cancelled: "You're thinking that things you say will come back and bite you on the [rear.]"
"There’s an assumption it's always bad and, somehow, we forgot comedians are going for the laugh," says Hart. "I'm trying to make you laugh and if I did not make you laugh I failed. That's my consequence."
The Jumanji star was famously cancelled in 2018 after several offensive tweets he made regarding the LGBT community over a decade earlier resurfaced. While Hart had previously apologized for the tweets, he stepped down from hosting the 2019 Oscars because of the growing backlash.
"I look back and cringe," he confessed. "I was just immature."