The Daily Show guest-host Leslie Jones warned white people not to mock a newly-unveiled sculpture by conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King — then ripped into the statue herself.
The sculpture — called “The Embrace” and modeled after an iconic photo of the couple taken after Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize — was unveiled this weekend in Boston Common and drew crass mockery from SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly and others, including Seneca Scott, a cousin of the late Mrs. King. Both compared the sculpture to a representation of a penis.
On Tuesday night’s edition of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, Jones covered the backlash to the statue by immediately making a different explicitly sexual comparison, then warning white people not to mock the sculpture:
Let me tell you something. Even though I’m about to go straight hard on this statue, I got to talk to the white people for a second.
White people? You don’t need to be saying shit about this statue! You understand? Black hands only! You need to sit your ass in the back of the bus for this one. Okay. You need to honor this statute!
This is a civil rights icon! Okay? (Applause) Going down on his wife. You show some damn respect! (Applause)
Okay, Black people, what we gonna do? We got to talk about this. We got to talk about this because, you know it’s messed up when Black people and the Proud Boys hate the same statue!
Jones went on to mock the statue for several more minutes, joined by comic Dulcé Sloan — who also compared one angle of the statue to a penis being cradled.
Ms. Jones is the first in what will be a rotating roster of guest hosts after Trevor Noah departed the show in December. But in an interview this week, Jones expressed skepticism about accepting the job permanently, saying that talking about politics every day “would bring me down.”
Watch above via Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
For more latest TV News Click Here