Nick Cannon defends Kevin Hart, brings up homophobic tweets by female comics

Los Angeles: Nick Cannon has come forward in what appears to be in support of Kevin Hart by naming female comedians who had used gay slurs on social media, after the comic stepped down as host of Oscars 2019 following a controversy over his old homophobic tweets that resurfaced.

On December 5, Hart was declared the host of next year's Academy Awards ceremony.

Soon after the comic's old tweets resurfaced, it led to an uproar on the internet and eventually he gave up the job two days later.

Cannon, without naming Hart, dug up old tweets by Chelsea Handler, Sarah Silverman and Amy Schumer in which they used a gay slur.

"Interesting. I wonder if there was any backlash here..." he retweeted Handler's tweet from 2010 that read, "This is what a f*g bird likes like when he flexes."

Cannon followed it up with a 2010 post from Silverman that read, "I dont mean this in a hateful way but the new bachelorette's a f****t."

He captioned the tweet, "And I f**king love Wreck-It Ralph!", a nod to the character Vanellope, voiced by Silverman, in the animated movie.

In the end, he unearthed Schumer's 2012 tweet that read, "Enjoy skyfall f**s. I'm bout to get knee deep in Helen Hunt #thesessions."

Cannon captioned the final retweet as: "I'm just saying... should we keep going?"

Hart said he was stepping down as Oscars host because he does not want to become a "distraction" at the ceremony. He also apologised to the LGBTQ community for his past "insensitive words".

According to Buzzfeed, Hart had started deleting his tweets after his announcement as the Oscars host, but many online users took screenshots before they were removed.