Stealing jokes is a cardinal sin in comedy. Normally comedians shy away from accusing other comics of stealing jokes in front of the world, but Katt Williams can’t help but tell the truth.
During an interview with The Morning Hustle radio show on Tuesday, Williams claimed that legendary comedian, Cedric The Entertainer, stole one of his bits and used it as the closing joke for his set on the iconic Kings of Comedy tour.
“When it initially happened to me, it crushed me because the comedian was already bigger and more famous than me and he took my closing joke and made it his closing joke on Kings of Comedy,” Katt said. “The reason it hit so bad was that I was in the theater. I paid my money to go see Kings of Comedy and to see my joke being there and not me was about as disrespectful as it gets in our craft and I took it really personally with Cedric The Entertainer at that time.”
The joke in question centers around space exploration. Cedric claims that white people are only interested in going to space so that they can further distance themselves from Black people. Unfortunately for any racists, Black people are going to go anywhere white people go. In fact, Black people wouldn’t even need lessons to learn how to drive a space shuttle because they’re used to driving long cars like Buick Electras.
Although the alleged joke theft was a blow to the young Katt Williams, the comedian went on to say that he’s done enough work throughout his career to differentiate himself from other comedians. Also, his fan base is wide enough that a comedian will get called out by viewers for trying to do one of his jokes.
“You either have to write your own jokes or you’re telling a variation of my joke whether you acknowledge it or not,” Williams said at the interview’s three-minute mark. “So, I care less. It’s a little saddening.”
When asked if he ever spoken about the incident to Cedric, Williams said, “I’m not that type of comedian. I’m going in your mouth where the joke is when you steal my jokes, and I have a reputation in this industry that if you steal my joke, you’re gonna be missing a tooth or two.” He added, “I don’t play like that.”
Watch Katt Williams’s full comments on The Morning Hustle above.
