Katt Williams’ revelation about Cedric The Entertainer earlier this year continues to resurface as fans question if he truly ever stole jokes from another fellow comedian at any point in his career.
Cedric is currently facing backlash after revealing a fact about the lesser-known chapter of his early comedy career during an appearance on the “All the Smoke” podcast with former NBA players and hosts Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
The comedian shared with hosts that his original stage name was “Cheerio,” the same name as the popular General Mills cereal. However, his plans to build a career around the name came to an abrupt halt when he received a cease-and-desist letter citing trademark violations.
“The official letter showed up with the green stamp on the outside with the seal on that joint,” he said. “I used to go by Cheerio. I had the chain and everything.”
He said at the time comedians were making a name for themselves with one word, such as Sinbad
While Barnes and Jackson lightheartedly mocked the name, and the Def Jam Comedy alum admitted it wasn’t the best choice for a comic, fans online drew connections to floating rumors of him stealing jokes.
“Lets get ittttt…ik Matt wouldn’t focus on the Katt Williams drama. Well i hope not. Ced did great for the culture,” wrote one person in the comments on YouTube.
On the podcast’s Instagram page, commenters seized the opportunity to renew allegations of unoriginality.
A second person wrote, “A name too? You stole a NAME TOO?” referencing comedian Katt Williams’ claims that Cedric stole one of his jokes years ago.
A few individuals brought up the “Pimpin’ Pimpin’” star directly, saying, “Katt killed All their careers fa me personally,” before arguing in the reply about the allegations against Cedric and others.
The Jasmine Brand also posted a clip from the episode, and fans brought up his alleged joke thefts.
“He been biting for awhile now I see,” one person observed.
Another said, “So essentially you tried to steal the name … of a cereal that was out for years but got caught… sounds familiar don’t it.”
A third comment continued, “Joke thief … Name thief … anyway you paint it Ceddie you seem to always be snatching other people stuff.”
The “joke theft” controversy erupted in early 2024 during Williams’ appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast. Sharpe broached the subject and Williams went off.
“When you asked him, ‘Did you steal Katt Williams’ joke?’ He said, ‘It don’t line up.’ How it don’t line up? He thought that I was just a no-name comedian and he could take this joke, and nobody would know,” the Ohio native blasted.
Williams alleged that he did the same joke on cable television twice and in 1998, after he performed the bit in Los Angeles, the more senior comic approached him to praise his set. Two years later, Williams claims Cedric performed a similar joke during one of the most defining gigs of his life.
“It had done so well on BET’s ‘ComicView’ that they had made it part of the commercial … So, this is not just a random joke, this is my very best joke and it’s my last joke and it’s my closing joke,” the “Friday After Next” star said.
Williams explained then, “Cedric comes to The Comedy Store. He watches me in the audience, he comes backstage. He tells me what a great job I did and how much he loves the joke. Two years later, he’s doing that as his last joke on ‘Kings of Comedy’ and he’s doing it verbatim. He’s just changed my car into a spaceship.”
Katt Williams’ Joke vs Cedric The Entertainer’s Joke
Thoughts pic.twitter.com/RKnQo5eOwR— A Nigga named Joe (@JoeMahgi) January 3, 2024
The Emmy winner first raised these accusations in 2021 on “The Morning Hustle,” and in response, Cedric has consistently denied the claims.
He later denied the allegations in March during a sit-down with Nelly on “The Shop” podcast and again in May during a radio interview with Big Boy. He said he thought that the two had addressed this misunderstanding already.
“We had had this conversation before,” Cedric said, admitting that the two never sat down face-to-face to address it.
“Katt had made the accusation earlier at some other time… We talked about that,” he continued. “Now we never talked about that issue directly, but I responded to him about the joke, and then he responded back, and that was that.”
With the “Cheerio” revelation, Cedric inadvertently stoked the embers of skepticism about his comedic integrity, casting a long shadow over his career and making him the punchline.
