Katt Williams Cancels Himself

Since January 3, that is, four months ago, Katt Williams has occupied a part of the American collective imagination, thanks to the best show he has given in his life… And where he did not tell a single joke but performed a monologue (because an interview, it wasn’t) on former football player Shannon Sharpe’s podcast. The marathon video in which Williams unleashed himself against everyone who crossed his mind has almost 70 million views. Who stole his jokes, who offered him oral sex, everything about Diddy, R. Kelly… and a gallery of characters: who was badder than the bad guys and a long etcetera. Then, the logical thing would come: a special broadcast live on Netflix.

And this could have been the big moment in sweaty Katt Williams’ comedy career (I don’t know why this guy is always sweating). So the special, called ‘WOKE FOKE’ seemed like the red carpet to Williams’ universal humorous immortality. But Katt Williams did the unthinkable: he blew it like never before. Because for the first time and I imagine that after his achievement with Shannon Sharpe, Williams wanted not only to be the usual comedian with his cheap jokes about sex but also wanted to delve into a field to which few have access: philosophical humor. But Katt is nowhere near being Dave Chappelle.

The special, broadcast live from the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California, claimed to be a kind of follow-up to the explosive comments Williams made four months ago. But unfortunately, it was perhaps the worst of his specials. Why? Because you can’t play being a pimp and a superhero at the same time. And even less so when you DON’T bring any new material to the table. So Katt Williams did the complete opposite of what a true star would do in this case: show his best.

But what did he do wrong?

From my perspective, there were three blunders in this special and I want to detail them as much as possible. We are talking about a huge, global event, in which the only relevant person had to be Katt Williams -and his talent- on stage. It seems to me not only unnecessary but also creative suicide to use funny viral videos, pictures taken from some social network, and many almost circus-like sound effects.

Man, you are Katt Wlliams and you should kill it in an hour with great, NEW material. But when you divert the audience’s attention to, for example, the video of a blind kid playing football that went viral in 2006 and that you’ve used in previous shows, you’re showing a dangerous lack of creativity. So if you are not the sole protagonist of your super special on Netflix, you are doing it wrong. Because you seem like an amateur who needs to rely on what others do, not having the tools he needs to do it himself. Which is really crazy, given that Katt Williams complains all the time that people steal his jokes (this one goes to you, Cedric the Entertainer).

Number two, there wasn’t a single new punchline. The unfulfilled promise was that ‘Woke Foke’ would release (according to Katt himself) secrets and hidden things from celebrities and all he did was the same as always: make fun of other people and tell the usual dirty joke. And even this whole Woke thing, it’s like rain on an ocean: it dilutes if there is no solid foundation. And Williams’ recycled jokes were just that: simple drops of water about this era in which you can be whoever you want and do whatever you want. That sums it up. I understand that all comedians have some classic jokes that they usually repeat in some shows, but that the entire repertoire (except for something that I consider the third mistake) is old material is an insult… to himself.

Before touching on the third issue, I want to send a recommendation to Mr. Katt Williams: friend, it is very uncomfortable to see you sweat as if you were being threatened by Tony Soprano: you sweat a lot. Stop wearing your pimp suits and put on a cotton t-shirt, jeans and go barefoot if that seems better to you. But enough with the sweat!

Third is the attempt to be smart, socially conscious, but using terrible, unfunny means to achieve it. I understand that all Black comedians have a chest of humor available thanks to slavery and racism. So of course there was a call for reparations: “We just gave $100 billion to the Ukraine. And God bless the Ukrainians. But off the record? We don’t know them n***as like that! You could’ve given that money to Black people. The f**k!” Now for his explanation about how slavery ended. According to him, it’s thanks to the fact that black women’s pu***es are the best in the universe and that led the plantation owners to keep them away from picking cotton and inside their houses. Well, if that’s your take, I think you fall short as a philosopher-comedian.

There were moments when Williams wanted to be thoughtful and empathetic. And there certainly wasn’t a single minute when the audience didn’t laugh. The point is: Why didn’t you try to make them laugh with something new, unreleased and instead play it safe? We’ll never know.