Wayne Brady on Louis CK’s Use of the N-Word: ‘Just Don’t’

Wayne Brady is on the wider internet’s side when it comes to the Chris Rock-Louis C.K. debacle. In an interview with TMZ, freed up from the constraints of Twitter, Brady went in on everyone involved. 

“It was inappropriate,” he said. “Louis C.K. shouldn’t have been saying it. Chris Rock shouldn’t have signed off on it. Ricky Gervais sure as hell shouldn’t have said it and I’m a Ricky Gervais fan.”

“I just think it’s completely inappropriate that Louis C.K. felt so comfortable,” he added. “People feel too comfortable saying that and just don’t. I don’t care if your best friend is the blackest dude in the world, don’t.”

Like everyone else who saw the clip, he couldn’t avoid seeing Seinfeld’s very considered decision to stay out of the conversation. He noted that Seinfeld wasn’t deserving of praise for not joining in with C.K. and Gervais’ bad choices.

“Seinfeld stayed out of it, but that doesn’t make him a hero or a saint,” he said. “It just made him tactically smart.”

Brady noted that he’s not on board with old conversations being dragged back into the light and judged without a full understanding of whether or not the people involved have already apologized. 

“I think that it’s an inappropriate conversation, but on the flip, it’s also an old tape,” he said. “This thing of old things being dredged up…It happened. I’m sure that Chris addressed it at some point.”

Ultimately, Brady saw it as a teachable moment. He told anyone watching that the best bet is to avoid the word. 

“That word has so much history connected to it,” he said. “Just ere on the side of class, don’t say it.”

Take a look at Wayne’s take up top.