Jess Hilarious regrets clowning Chadwick Boseman about his appearance

Jess Hilarious says her singular career regret is riffing on Chadwick Boseman’s appearance in a 2020 “Jess with the Mess” social media post.

Unbeknownst to the public, at the time, the Black Panther actor was at the tail end of a private four-year battle with colon cancer that caused him to appear gaunt and vastly different from the superhero and real-life trailblazers he portrayed on the big screen.

Four years ago, on Jackie Robinson Day (April 15), Boseman paid homage to the Major League Baseball great while spreading awareness about a partnership providing medical gear to underserved hospitals in Black and Latino communities during the pandemic. In the new episode of “The Pivot Podcast,” Jess discussed how cracking a joke at the actor’s expense led her to reevaluate her approach to her viral comedy bits.

She began by explaining, “I was gon’ stop doing ‘Jess with the Mess’ ‘cause all I do is riff on people... That’s my thing. And I remember Chadwick Boseman had dropped a video shortly before he passed, and I thought he was training for a movie. I thought he was, you know, some people really get into the roles that they, you know, lose weight for a role or something like that.”

“He was telling people to stay inside… I said you need to stay inside or something like that… Of course, I didn’t know anything about his cancer or anything like that… I riffed on him, and everybody thought it was funny and cool, even myself until he passed,” added the newest co-host of “The Breakfast Club.”

“I [didn’t even] care how people looked at me. How I looked at myself was crazy… I was like, alright, I gotta change the way I move. For a minute, I didn’t want to do ‘Jess with the Mess’ no more because you don’t know what the hell people [are] going through, you don’t know when you come at somebody’s appearance… I just looked at him as a great actor,” said Jess.

When she saw the backlash online, Jess accepted it, saying, “I deserve all of that… He was so unproblematic… That’s the only thing I regret.” Boseman passed away at the age of 43 in August 2020, three months after the joke controversy.

Check out the full episode below.

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