A comedian had a change of heart about making a joke out of XXXTentacion’s tragic death.
Dina Hashem issued an apology after she received backlash for a joke she made about the murder of South Florida rapper XXXTentacion. On Friday a clipped surfaced of Hashem’s set as a preview for Comedy Central’s “This Week at the Comedy Cellar.” In it, Hashem makes light of the robbery/murder incident that ended XXXTentacion’s life.
“Is anyone still mourning XXXTentacion?” she asked the crowd, some of whom responded “yeah.” “He’s a rapper who was murdered, he’s dead now. He was shot, he was on his way to buy a car with $50,000 in cash and somebody shot him and took the money. Which is very tragic, but I think also it would be a very good Venmo commercial, you know? The first thing I thought when I heard that. Like,’I don’t have Venmo. I should get Venmo.”
Too Soon!! Too Soon!! ???????#DinaHashem #xxxtentation pic.twitter.com/Qd02hvRc7x
— S.MARKETINGMUSIC (@SMarketingmusic) July 20, 2019
Once the clip went viral, the comedian was scolded by XXXTentacion’s fanbase who felt it was insensitive to laugh about the rapper’s death that is still fresh in a lot of folks minds. Other comedians, however, came to Hashem’s defense.
Nevertheless, Comedy Central pulled the joke, according to The Blast, and has since deleted the clip from their social media page.
On Saturday, Hashem issued an apology via her Instagram page, after making her Twitter account private.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone’s feelings that’s never what I want,” she wrote in a statement. “I’m a comic and use jokes to make dark topics less painful, but I realize not everyone feels that way, and don’t want anyone to feel badly. It was taken down and won’t air on TV.”
Many people on Twitter criticized Comedy Central for cutting the joke, citing that there was no room for sensitivity in the art of comedy. Others defended Hashem saying the hip-hop community has no right to be upset or offended because of the genre’s history of glorifying violence.
Last week, a posthumous XXXTentacion dancehall record was released titled “Royalty” featuring Vybz Kartel, Stefflon Don, and Ky-Mani Marley.
Either everything is off limits or nothing is off limits. Comedy can’t exist in a “how you personally feel about the topic” world. To support @dinahashem_ (a good comic) is to support the art of comedy. And all this PC shit is coming from hip hop fans? Do they not see the irony?
— Liz Miele (@lizmiele) July 20, 2019
XXXTentacion bragged about stabbing nine people and “bashing” his girlfriend’s face publicly on the Internet. Dina Hashem used his name to make a joke about Venmo. Maybe think about which one makes you angry. (For me, it’s Venmo. You don’t fucking touch Venmo.)
— Adam Newman (@Adam_Newman) July 20, 2019
I can’t believe @dinahashem_ made a Venmo joke about a guy who beat his pregnant gf. #cancelled
— Bonnie McFarlane (@bonniemcfarlane) July 20, 2019
