Kevin Hart is definitely not hosting the 2019 Academy Awards, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have jokes already planned for his opening monologue. During an interview with SiriusXM in promotion of his new film “The Upside,” Hart decided to reveal two segments he was planning to incorporate into his hosting gig.
“You have to have people that have a high level of not giving a fuck to make the night good,” Hart said. “The whole purpose of Kevin Hart hosting the Oscars was to take away the tension. I have bits that were fucking phenomenal.”
Hart said one topic he was going to riff on was memes and how “you don’t want to be a meme.” As the comedian explained, “Don’t fucking sit in here and put yourself in a position where you’re going to become a meme. I was going to pull up the pictures in the past of people that became memes and simply say, ‘This is why you need to relax.’ Remember the picture of Denzel [Washington] where he’s got the teeth out? He’s one of the best actors to ever do it and this meme almost took him out. I was going to say what the meme did and what damage it can do. I had fucking gold. I was going to come out swinging, I promise you.”
Hart was also planning to praise all the directors and producers in the room and ask them to raise their hands. And the punchline? “I was going to open up the door and have my friends come in and just start pitching for 20 seconds,” Hart said.
Hart was originally announced as Oscars host in December, but quickly stepped down after facing backlash over past comments about the LGBTQ community. Last week, Ellen DeGeneres had Hart on her show to encourage the comedian to reconsider. She even went so far as to share she had spoken to the Academy and heard it wanted him back. On “Good Morning America” on January 9, Hart confirmed he would not be hosting, saying he did not want the controversy to distract from the night at large.
“I’m over it,” Hart said multiple times when asked by “GMA” host Michael Strahan about the situation. “There’s no more conversation about it. I’m over that, I’m over the moment. I’m not giving no more explanation of who I am. I’m just done.”
The 2019 Academy Awards take place Sunday, February 24. Watch Hart discuss his scrapped Oscars monologue in the video below.