Among the still-cascading effects of Katt Williams’ Jan. 4 interview on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast – which has 33 million views at press time – is the glut of receipt-digging everyone is doing to corroborate the many claims Williams made.
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He made crystalline that he has zero love lost for “Mr. Potato Head” Steve Harvey. But outside of his hilarious ad hominem attacks – and the fact that he caused so many people to just now discover that Harvey used to wear a “man unit” when we had that figured out during Barack Obama’s first presidential term – Williams made the damning accusation that Harvey jacked entire jokes and concepts from other comedians.
Williams claimed that Harvey nicked comedian Mark Curry’s entire “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper” concept for his own “The Steve Harvey Show.” The former ran for five seasons from 1992 to 1997, and the latter for six seasons from 1996 to 2002.
Both shows center on men transitioning from their passion career into teaching and are complete with hijinks from staff and students. Those of us of a certain age loved both shows, but Williams made many of us notice the similarities for the first time; it casts a pall over “The Steve Harvey Show” knowing that Harvey might’ve pulled the same shit that “Friends” did with “Living Single.”
This weekend, a 2019 episode of “The Mike & Donny Show” featuring Curry as a guest started doing the rounds. Curry claimed that Harvey stole a joke involving him being so poor that he had to dress up as a UPS box for Halloween.
“You made enough money b***h ass…why you on my material?” Curry asked.
Did Harvey steal the joke? It looks pretty damn bad, but you can make the determination for yourself:
The TikTok super-sleuths also honed in on the 2017 “Def Comedy Jam 25” program on Netflix. Notable for being one of the last times we saw Russell Simmons outside, the program concludes with Dave Chappelle closing out the evening with everyone on stage behind him.
Squint and you can see Curry speaking to an incredibly uncomfortable-looking Harvey in the back. Jesus be a lip reader.
Of all the things he had to say about Harvey on Club Shay Shay, Williams never suggested that he stole any of his jokes. But the sleuths did their sleuthing and determined that Harvey might have jacked Williams as well.
When Harvey left stand-up, leveraged his three marriages to write the “self-help” book “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man” and built up a lucrative “mainstream” career (read: get paid by white folks to entertain white folks), he became less appealing to his original fan base – his pretentious letter to his staff and those weird shirtless photos didn’t help his cause.
So, if Harvey did jack comedians like Curry – who hasn’t enjoyed the same degree of fame and income — I’m here for airing him out like a wet toupee. Maybe the whole thing is a coincidence and Harvey and Curry were somehow in a creative sync (more than once), but it feels like Harvey was willing to “Think Like a Man, Act Like Another Comedian,” which puts an asterisk over his entire career.
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