‘Speaking of Dead Kids’: Shane Gillis and Chelsea Handler Clash on Israel and Epstein at Netflix Roast of Kevin Hart

(Screengrab via X)

Jabs exchanged between comedian Chelsea Handler and host Shane Gillis went viral after the pair sparred with some deeply personal jabs during Netflix’s Roast of Kevin Hart on Sunday night.

The two appeared as part of the closing show for the 2026 Netflix Is A Joke festival, where Gillis served as host and introduced Handler, who is Jewish, with a series of provocative remarks on Israel, abortion, and her past dinner with Jeffrey Epstein.

“Chelsea is a Zionist. Not saying that’s a good or bad thing. Speaking of dead kids, she’s a big fan of abortions. Chelsea’s been scraped more times than the grill at Benihana,” Gillis told the audience.

He then escalated the attack, adding: “Speaking of tossing tiny shrimp into a child’s mouth, Chelsea Handler went to dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house in 2010. Look it up, there’s articles. It wasn’t like a big party, there were like seven people there. It was like Prince Andrew and Woody Allen were there.”

Handler has previously spoken publicly about attending a “weird” dinner at Epstein’s home with journalist Katie Couric, telling Rob Lowe in 2025 podcast that she “didn’t know who Jeffrey Epstein was” at the time.

“Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn were there. Charlie Rose was there. Oh yeah, Prince Andrew was there with — no, with no one. He was there with Jeffrey Epstein,” she said at the time.

When Handler took the stage, she immediately responded to Gillis with a pointed reference to his 2019 firing from Saturday Night Live.

“Shane, just so you know, Judaism and Zionism are two different things,” she said. “Just like how Chinatown and Koreatown are two different things, but your favorite slur works in both places.”

Gillis was dismissed by NBC executives less than a week after he was announced as an SNL cast member after resurfaced podcast clips showed him using anti-Asian slurs. He has returned twice since 2024 to host the show.

Watch on Netflix.

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