Deon Cole kicked off the 57th NAACP Image Awards with spicy jokes and name-dropping! His opening prayer had the audience gasping, laughing and clapping it up. But not everyone found his jokes sweet! Late Sunday, Deon shared some reactions to his comments, namely about Nicki Minaj and Tourette’s. And spoiler alert: it’s all hate mail with lil’ extra hate sprinkled in.
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Deon Cole Let The Jokes Fly At The NAACP Image Awards
The jokey jabs that landed Deon Cole in hot water with the Barbz (Nicki Minaj fans) and Tourette’s advocates happened right at the beginning! The comedian opened the show with a non-serious prayer. He began by asking the Lord to bless Teyana Taylor, and to maintain her single and away from extremely handsome men so the “average man…woman” can get a likelihood. Taylor was within the audience, cracking up!
Later in his prayer, Cole asked God to bless Nicki Minaj. The audience immediately laughed as her picture appeared on the stage screen.
“She’s been going through so much these days Lord…hasn’t been herself Lord. I imagine whatever’s in her a** is affecting her brain Lord. Take it out her a** Lord, we bind that spirit in her a** Lord.”
Afterward, Cole joked about how anyone with Tourette’s within the audience should read the NAACP Image Awards room before a tic. As previously reported, Tourette’s campaigner, John Davidson, recently caught heat after shouting the n-word as Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo took the stage on the BAFTA Awards. Cole’s joke was a reference to that firestorm!
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Comedian Reveals Hate Mail In His DMs
After his prayer jokes, Deon Cole hopped on Instagram to point out how folks behind IG pages were poppin’ off in his DMs. A few of the responses appeared to come back from Barbz, per their word decisions while others seemed offended by the comment about individuals with Tourette’s reading the room. From calling Deon the n-word (hard -er at times) to wishing death on him, his DMs put the HATE in hate mail. He didn’t caption the post, but nearly 8,000 people weighed in on the multi-slide insults, including Jamie Foxx, who wrote: “Bro I really like you! You’re good.”
BET Releases Statement In Support Of Deon Cole
Because the hate mail went viral, BET stepping in to point out Deon Cole some love! It shared a post on Instagram, tagging accounts for the comedian, the NAACP and the NAACP Image Awards. All of the photos featured Cole on the stage, or posing with other celebs.
“Comedians are truth tellers. Tasked with making the hard parts digestible, bringing laughs to our darkest days, equal parts intelligence and humor, @deoncole, what you probably did last night was a lesson in showmanship. Thanks for being our #NAACPImageAwards host for the second 12 months in a row. We see you.”
The post received over 1,800 comments and greater than 16,000 likes, even Jamie Foxx slid by that comment section, too. He wrote, “Incredible job!!!” See additional comments below.
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