It sounds a lot like a member of Steve Harvey’s social media team may not be eligible to use him as a reference as they pursue new employment opportunities. The unidentified individual is at the center of a controversial post shared on the stand-up comic’s Twitter account a week ago.
The since-deleted tweet prompted Harvey’s followers to throw his comedy peers under the bus. “A comedian you don’t find funny at all?” read the Aug. 19 post that garnered more than one million views. Although delayed, word of the problematic tweet got back to the Emmy Award-winning entertainer, who addressed it in a video on the social platform on Friday (Aug. 25). Harvey said the question was shared in poor taste to bait users into engaging with his content. He admonished the employee for contradicting his entire brand.
“Somebody that works for me on my Twitter put a statement out that was totally negative. I gotta take responsibility for it ’cause they work for me, but the engagement was talking about ‘name a comedian you don’t think is funny.’ Why would I do something like that?” Harvey rhetorically asked. “That don’t even make no d**n sense. My whole brand is to be motivational, and Imma turn around a say something like that? You don’t know where these young people [are] at in they career, man. They could be coming up or anything. I’m all about positivity; I would’ve never done nothing like that.”
At the time of the recording, the “Family Feud” host was taking a break from the hustle and bustle of his entertainment career by spending time in nature and fishing. Harvey said he was so “pissed off right now, man, talking about, ‘I was trying to get some engagement.’ Okay, okay, you trying to get some employment, too. My bad, y’all. Now I gotta come on here and do a d**n selfie. So here it is: I’m sorry, man. My bad, y’all. [It] won’t happen again, though.”
Some reactions included people who felt firing the employee was harsh and that he should have instead held them accountable in another way. But an overwhelming majority could not help but find humor in Harvey referring to his video as a selfie. Many fans said that in itself was proof that “Unc” was not behind the tweet.