Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | May 21, 2026
If you watched Netflix’s roast of Kevin Hart and came away feeling vaguely ill, welcome to being a normal human. Chelsea Handler apparently fits in that category, as she wasn’t OK with the roasts delivered by Shane Gillis (who called Handler a Zionist and mentioned that Handler had met Jeffrey Epstein in 2010) or Tony Hinchcliffe, as she said on Deon Cole’s Funny Knowing You podcast (via THR). Handler called it “ick” and “gross,” while also somehow noting that it went “better than I thought it would.”
Specifically, she wasn’t a fan of Shane Gillis’ lynching joke or Tony Hinchcliffe joking that George Floyd was in hell, although she wasn’t surprised by it.
“I knew they would be lazy, because they do that for a living.”
That said, before the roast, Handler apparently got a few DMs from exes of Shane Gillis, who wanted to help her take him down (no help necessary). The exes, however, didn’t shed light on the subject we didn’t already know. “It’s just everything we know. That they’re racist, that they’re bigots, that they’re sexist, that they think that they’re invincible.”
According to an ex, Gillis apparently thinks he’s invincible because he was fired from SNL and not only brought back as host, but brought back twice. In other words, he took the wrong lesson from the experience, which is apparently that he can say anything.
“Lynching is not a joke,” she added. “That’s worse than rape. You’re not joking about rape, are you? You know you can’t do that, but you can say lynching?”
According to Handler, Gillis and Hinchcliffe were sucking up to Joe Rogan and the Austin comedy scene. She even went so far as to actually say that Kevin Hart didn’t deserve the shellacking he took. “He deserved, like, an elevated roast.”
I’m not entirely sure about that.
Anyway, according to Variety, Gillis is nonplussed by the criticism. “This is a big moment for Chelsea. I am glad she’s capitalizing. Good for her. We’re all rooting for her. Anyway, come see me July 17th at the football stadium in Philly.”
A football stadium. Sure, man. Good for you.
