December 20, 2018
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
Actor and comedian Kevin Hart speaks to the crowd gathered outside Max's Cheesesteaks at Germantown and Erie avenues on Thursday, July 6. His appearance in the neighborhood where he grew up was part of the city's 'Kevin Hart Day' celebration, during which a portrait of Hart was unveiled by Mural Arts Philadelphia.
Philly's Kevin Hart managed to top Forbes' list of the "World's Highest-Paid Comedians of 2018," despite some year-end controversy.
Hart placed only second to the King of Comedy, Jerry Seinfeld, who earned $57.5 million this year from the combined fruits of his stand-up and Netflix and Hulu deals. Seinfeld was actually dethroned as the reigning top earner back in 2016 by Hart.
But this year, the Philly comedian only missed Seinfeld by $500,000, earning a total of $57 million. Hart's income came in large part from his tour — The Kevin Hart Irresponsible Tour — which was the biggest comedy tour of the year. He also starred in a bunch of movies.
All this despite some year-end drama that may have lost Hart some followers. He came under fire this month after he was selected to host the 2019 Oscars and was called out for using harmful homophobic language in some of his comedy and in old tweets. Hart eventually resigned from the emcee job. (And so far, no new host has been selected.)
Hart posted to Instagram on Wednesday after the list was announced, calling the list "an honor."
"Such an honor to be on such an amazing list full of talented comedians. Let’s keep making the world laugh," he posted.
Dave Chappelle ranked third on Forbes' list having earned $35 million, followed by comedians Chris Rock, Ricky Gervais, Gabriel Iglesias, Terry Fator, Jim Gaffigan, Jeff Dunham, and Sebastian Maniscalco. Here's the entire story.
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