Kevin Hart didn’t let Kirk Franklin’s twerking moment slide during his hosting gig at the BET Awards on Monday night.
While roasting the Ultimate Icon Award winners—which included Franklin—Hart brought up a moment from last year’s Reunion Tour where Franklin playfully twerked on Jacky Clark Chisholm of the Clark Sisters.
“Kirk, do me a favor. When you get your award tonight, don’t come up here front twerking, okay? Yeah, don’t come up here popping,” Hart joked. “Don’t do it, Kirk. Don’t do it. That’s what Kirk be doing—he be trying to blame it on the lord. The lord didn’t ask for that. Put it away, Kirk. Put it away.”
Kevin Hart’s playful jab had the crowd cracking up—including Kirk Franklin himself.
“Hey, Kirk, on a serious note, I love you, man. God bless you—everything you doing is good,” Hart said warmly. “God is good all the time. Kirk, that makes it right. Whatever I just said, it goes away.”
After Franklin hit the stage with a performance, he playfully clapped back at Hart.
“Who’s taller?” Franklin asked, sparking a back-and-forth.
“I’m taller than you, Kirk,” Hart replied.
“Who’s taller?” Franklin repeated.
“Kirk, you got a heel on… We can talk about it later, but you clearly have a heel on. I got a flat. I’m taller. And you did exactly what I said don’t do—you was up here bopping,” Hart said, keeping the laughs going.
Back in January, Kirk Franklin issued an apology for twerking. That moment—along with another where he flexed his biceps in a tank top during a Jamaica performance—caught some fans off guard.
“I am aware now that my choice of attire, which as a team we thought was going to be fine being outside in the weather, was going to be something that would not come across as disrespectful,” Franklin said in a video apology addressing his outfit.
“I’ve spent most of my career dancing and moving around and jumping on stage that I didn’t know that I would ever do anything that would ever offend anyone in any community, but it did,” he continued. “And because it did, I sincerely apologize.”
Franklin admitted, “I shouldn’t have been playing out there in front of y’all,” and added, “should have kept that to myself and had fun with them the way I do when we be acting a fool. But sometimes I get on my own nerves. And when I was doing it, it seemed fine. When I saw the clip, yeah, it’s too much.”
Mariah Carey, Jamie Foxx, and Snoop Dogg were also celebrated with Ultimate Icon Awards during the BET Awards.
