Cedric the Entertainer has responded to Katt Williams’ recent accusations of joke theft, calling the claim “revisionist history.”
“Revisionist history, regardless of whatever Katt’s opinion, my career can’t be reduced to one joke Katt Williams claims as his,” Cedric commented on Instagram in response to a post of Williams’ “Club Shay Shay” interview. “[I’ve been in] over 40 movies, my specials and brand speaks volumes for I am. The people I have put on [include] ‘Katt in the Hat’ at the Gibson Amphitheater.”
He then commented again about “all that tough talk,” calling it “corny af.”
“I’m a grown ass man. And none of that s–t going to go like you think,” Cedric wrote. He then concluded by writing, “You do you and I got this over here.”
Representatives for Williams and Cedric did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
On Wednesday, Katt Williams made headlines following an interview on the podcast “Club Shay Shay” for saying that Cedric the Entertainer stole one of his jokes. “He thought that I was just a no-name comedian and that he could take this joke and nobody would know,” Williams said during the interview.
“Cedric comes to The Comedy Store. He watches me in the audience, he comes backstage. He tells me what a great job I did and how much he loves the joke,” Williams continued. “Two years later, he’s doing that as his last joke on the ‘Kings of Comedy’ and he’s doing it verbatim. He’s just changed my car into a spaceship.”
Though neither Williams nor Cedric have explicitly said what the joke in question is, some online sleuthing reveals what the two comedians are likely feuding over. There is a very specific visual joke with clear parallels that has appeared in both of their work.
During his 1998 appearance on “ComicView” Williams said, “You had your car radio up so loud that you couldn’t hear the damn thing when it cut off. It look like this.”
Williams then took off his jacket, sat on a stool onstage and pretended to drive a car as a beat played over the speakers. As Williams “drove,” he bounced up and down, miming his car breaking down.
Later in 2000, Cedric performed a similar joke in Spike Lee’s “The Original Kings of Comedy,” the film version of the standup tour of the same name. In the special, the comedian goes on for a while about how much white people love space movies.
“They think they’re gonna leave us down here on Earth, they gonna move to the moon. Ain’t gonna happen,” Cedric said. “Y’all move to the moon, dammit, we comin’ to the moon. We’ll be right behind y’all in space shuttles with Cadillac grilles.”
Cedric then proceeded to mime driving a space Cadillac. Much like with Williams’ impression, he drove the fictional car one-handed as a beat played over the speakers. The comedian then launched into a bit about parallel parking but did not mime his car breaking down as Williams did.
As Williams originally mentioned that Cedric “changed my car into a spaceship,” it is likely this is this joke in question.
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