Words by: Tahyira Savanna
The reason they know your name will never be your decision. Dina Hashem knows this all too well as she has been thrust into the media for a not so funny joke made at the late rapper XXXTentacion’s expense.
Comedy Central recently aired a clip of Hashem referring to the day the rapper was shot down in front of a car dealership.
“He was shot, he was on his way to buy a car with $50K in cash and somebody shot him and took the money,” she said. “Which is very tragic but I think also it would be a very good Venmo commercial. That’s the first thing I thought when I heard that.”
People were appalled. Rapper Lil Pump responded to Hashem via an Instagram story post.
Juice WRLD went on to roast the comedienne saying she looks like “a bottle of spoiled milk” and that “she be perfect for a milk commercial.” Hashem isn’t taking the heat alone, the hashtag #CancelComedyCentral is being used to slam the network and calls to remove the clip from airing again. She wrote an apology and has made her Twitter account private in response to all the name-calling and social media shade.
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Despite the controversy, fellow comedians have come to the comic’s defense stating that in the world of comedy, nothing is off-limits. They argue that comedy is not about one’s personal feelings and called out the fans of the rapper for being hypocritical.
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
Some fans went as far as to send death threats to the comic. Many in their defense of the joke called out some of X’s behaviors with one Twitter user saying “Dina Hashem is an extremely talented comedian and should absolutely not be getting vitriol for making a punchline out of a rapper who admitted to beating his pregnant girlfriend and trying to kill a gay man.”
If you’re more comfortable with a violent abuser than you are with a comedian making a joke about a violent abuser, that says more about you than the comedian
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) July 20, 2019
Ironically, Hashem started off her joke by asking the audience “Is anyone still mourning XXXTentacion?” The answer is pretty clear.
