The “Family Feud” host, 68, appeared on Tuesday’s episode of The Pivot Podcast and was asked what “acceptable jokes” can be made in comedy nowadays in the cancel culture era.
“I even see you on Family Feud, sometimes, I can see the clock working where you got a joke, but you’re not allowed to say that joke,” host Channing Crowder said to Harvey.
“I got it. And see, it’s very hard,” Harvey replied. “But that’s why I left stand-up in 2012, 2015, one of them. I left stand-up then because I had so many shows. I had built such a catalog of work. I was making money. I had to let something go.”
Harvey explained that his workload and family responsibilities also influenced his choice. “And if I tour on the weekends, I wouldn’t even have a family,” said the father of seven. “So I let stand-up go because I saw the change coming.”
The comedian-turned-TV star reiterated that “change is inevitable” and said he knew he needed to exit stand-up before it was too late.
“You got to react or participate. So my participation was to get away from it because the cancel culture started becoming everywhere,” Harvey explained. “Comedy is too hard to do right now. And all you got to do is look now the way the cancel culture works.”
He praised the podcast hosts for keeping their content authentic, cautioning them not to “fix what isn’t broken.”
Harvey performed his final stand-up show at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in August 2012. The two-hour show aired live on pay-per-view TV. “The road to this final show has been an amazing journey doing stand-up for the past 27 years, and I can’t thank fans enough after reflecting on all those years on stage, and the unforgettable moments and jokes we’ve shared,” he said at the time.
Since leaving stand-up, Harvey has reinvented himself as one of the most recognizable faces in television. Beyond hosting Family Feud and Celebrity Family Feud, he runs The Steve Harvey Morning Show, a nationally syndicated radio program, and he previously hosted the Miss Universe pageant from 2015 to 2019. Harvey also fronted The Steve Harvey Show (1996–2002) and later Steve Harvey (2012–2017), a daytime talk show.
Outside entertainment, Harvey has authored several best-selling books including Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man (2009), which inspired the box office hit Think Like a Man. He has also built a business empire that spans production, fashion, philanthropy, and motivational speaking, solidifying his reputation as one of the most versatile entertainers of his generation.
