During another episode of Club Shay Shay, Shannon Sharpe’s weekly podcast where he interviews celebrities, dropped with Damon Wayans. During the episode, Wayans spoke about his family, fame, and his start in comedy. But it’s when Wayans came to Kanye West’s defense that has the internet talking.
In case you don’t know, the Grammy Award-winning rapper has been going viral for controversial tweets and of course for dragging celebrities such as Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian during a recent interview he did with DJ Akademiks.
During the podcast episode, Shannon Sharpe asked Wayans if Kanye is a celebrity he would’ve liked to sketch about if the show “In Living Color,” the sketch comedy show Wayans was a writer on, was still in production. The answer Wayans gave was more empathetic than expected.
“I love Kanye. And people are mad at him, you know, what he’s doing is wild, but when you see a homeless person in the street and they’re talking to themself you can’t be mad at them.”
It was the comparison to a homeless person that got Black folks on Twitter talking. Some Ye fans dragged Wayans over the comment. One user wrote, “He called him a crazy homeless person then says he love him lol nah Ye comin’ after him next.” And another user said, “Just because Kanye says things that aren’t ‘nice’ doesn’t make him a babbling homeless man... like do y’all hear yourselves??”
Another user is waiting to see how Kanye will respond to the comment.
Wayans doubled down on his comparison in the interview by saying, “I don’t listen to the homeless man yelling stuff and think “Oh, he mean that.” He don’t mean that.”
Though Ye fans were upset by this comparison, other responses to the clip understood what the comedian was trying to say. Such as @lpeake00, who wrote, “Something is definitely wrong with Ye & I seriously hope someone can reach him! #ifheletsthem”
And @Chrispy0514 said, “BAM, he nailed that! I have a sister who’s mentally ill and goes off the rail sometimes and we have to reel her back in, but her actions have caused a lot of damages over the years.”
Other folks thought the comparison was disrespectful towards homeless people.
@DanteG wrote, “Difference between the homeless man and ‘ye is the latter literally has a billion resources for help, while the former has nothing. Ye’ loves being a hate mongerer. Ye targets are always specific: Black and Jewish folks. Why not be honest. Ye is just evil like any sorry racist.”
@DasburT_ said, “Stop infatalizing people. Just bc you have mental illness it doesn’t absolve you from accountability. It’s still your responsibility to do your best to get it in check.”