Winners and Losers
Katt Williams and the Zero Sum Principle of Power
Katt Williams’s viral interview with Shannon Sharpe has now surpassed 30 million views in 5 days. I’ve watched it 3 times. My parents have watched it. My parents didn’t even know who Katt Williams was or why they watched it. An instant classic. What makes it so is not only Katt’s unapologetic commitment to setting the record straight on behalf of himself and others who haven’t gotten their just due, but the relentlessness of it all. Despite his stated objective of just telling the truth, the real theme of the interview wasn’t truth-telling (if it were, we’d have probably been spared the questionable tale of him reading 3,000 non-fiction books in a year as an 8-year old). It was, instead, the showcasing of such a level of dominance in the field of storytelling that both the truth and the lies commanded respect. This was a performance on par with his comedy specials. A demonstration of why he reigned supreme over his competition. Fitting for the platform of a Pro Football Hall of Famer, this was an homage to the sport of comedy - “Winners are not allowed to let losers rewrite history,” he said.
The problem with Katt Williams co-signing the logic of domination in this way is that it means Katt Williams should never have access to a platform. To people like Steve Harvey, Kevin Hart, and Ludacris, Katt Williams is a loser. He’s the one still doing grueling, 100-city comedy tours while they execute multiple T.V. and movie deals largely from the comforts of L.A. studios. If it’s true that winners shouldn’t let losers write history, then it is precisely the job of winners to tell it their way at any and all costs. Katt really didn’t disrupt that framework, he just contested his position within it. He stopped short of righteously defining a winner as something other than a dictator. Under empire, even the most eloquent ethics have their limits. At some point, everything becomes subservient to raw power. According to Katt, a winner isn’t just an entity who remains faithful to the craft (although he successfully established it as a prerequisite), a winner is an entity who can effectively obliterate.
The radical ability to prove his superiority by demonstrating a ready-and-willingness to push any issue, set fire to facades, and challenge those more committed to branding than integrity is what has inspired people to rally around him and defend his credibility. But, at the end of the day, this radicalism was tempered by his allegiance to authoritarianism. No moment highlighted this more than, when commenting on his legendary roast of popular Atlanta comedian and radio host Wanda Smith, he boastfully analogized his destruction of her career to Israel’s destruction of Gaza - “My first job is to be funny. My second job is to be respectful. My third job is to be immaculate and Gaza Strip it. That’s non-political. I’m saying, you let a terrorist accidentally touch over here and I won’t stop burning you down ‘til there ain’t nothing left. It’ll literally be rubble on top of rubble and I’ll still be bombing. Why? Because that’s why you should mind your business. This is what f-around and find out is about.” This analytical move revealed his true motive as not simply veracity, but vengeance. His ability to set the record straight suddenly broke down when it came to his framing of the indiscriminate murder of Palestinians. After all, the Palestinians are geopolitical “losers.” And losers don’t get to have history told in their favor. Selectively thorough truth-telling was certainly a useful tool as a means to an end, but it wasn’t the point of the interview. Supremacy was the point of the interview.
Ultimately, Katt Williams was campaigning for his rightful place as champion. The winner should take all and that winner is him. I’m not sure if he can play 11 games of basketball with a 20-year-old like he said. But I do believe that he lives by his skills. And I do believe that he remains among the best living comedy writers in a generation where his most celebrated peers have made it seem like writing doesn’t matter so long as the check clears. Some of the best nights of my life happened in the summers when I was home from college and my friends and I met up at someone’s house to watch The Pimp Chronicles or It’s Pimpin’ Pimpin’. Again, instant classics. I mean, Katt Williams is really really funny. One of the greatest.