Katt Williams Claims Cedric the Entertainer Stole His "Best Joke" — Here's the Proof

We’re used to seeing beef hashed out on podcasts, but it’s rare to see beef between two comedians (unless those comedians are Chris Rock and Will Smith). But beyond that, the comedy world likes to keep their beef onstage during roast battles instead of behind the scenes of podcasting. However, Katt Williams has changed that.

Katt is a classic comedian, considered one of the best in the world by many comedy fans. So when he revealed that Cedric the Entertainer stole one of his biggest jokes on the Club Shay Shay podcast with Shannon Sharpe, people wanted to know exactly what the allegations were. So what did Katt Williams say about Cedric the Entertainer?

On Jan. 3, 2024, legendary comedian Katt opened up about joke theft. Joke theft is a common problem in the comedy world—it’s easy to see a joke and subconsciously write the same joke years later. But sometimes, joke theft is much more intentional, which is when it’s also more sinister. It’s also tricky because up-and-coming comedians often perform in front of bigger names, who could theoretically steal their jokes without getting caught. But what’s the point? What’s the joy in that?

Even still, Katt tells the infamous story of how Cedric stole one of his jokes. Cedric also addressed this on the Club Shay Shay podcast in 2022, so this is Katt’s proof of theft after Cedric had publicly denied it.

“He thought that I was just a no-name comedian and that he could take this joke and nobody would know,” Katt said. “The issue was that I had already done this particular joke on BET’s ComicView twice. It had done so well on BET’s ComicView that they made it part of the commercial.”

“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,” Katt continued. “1998 I'm doing this joke, it's on ComicView. 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 the Kings of Comedy and he's doing it verbatim, he’s just changed my car into a spaceship.”

After watching the two jokes back to back, one can see that Cedric clearly took a page from Katt’s book, as even the mannerisms are the same between the two jokes. And because Katt’s joke came first, it’s safe to say that he’s not making baseless allegations.

Even still, Cedric responded in the comments of the Instagram post, “Revisionist History, regardless of whatever Katts opinion,” he wrote. “My career can’t be reduced to One Joke Katt Williams claims as his. I been over 40 movies, my specials and brand speaks volumes for I am. The ppl I have put on including ‘Katt in the Hat.’ At the Gibson Amphitheater.”

While Cedric is clearly not happy with Katt’s story and calls it, “Revisionist History,” he doesn’t flat-out deny Katt’s claim. In fact, Katt goes on to say that Cedric and Steve Harvey, who repeated Katt’s experiences with homelessness as his own, both apologized to Katt privately. This is why Katt never came out publicly blaming them for joke theft.

But after Cedric went on Club Shay Shay in 2022, Katt decided to respond. At the time, Cedric said, “I’ve seen this guy [Katt Williams] 30 times. Like, dog, if you literally was that upset about it, like why didn’t you say nothing, like that don’t even make sense. This is some internet s--t, and that’s all I can say, so, you know, when I responded to him, he didn’t respond back to me and I left it at that.”

Well, Katt finally responded and it's clear who's in the wrong. Everyone makes mistakes, so hopefully these two kings of comedy can work it out amongst themselves.