Tiffany Haddish Asked for Usher’s Permission to Tell Herpes Joke

Tiffany Haddish might be a comedian, but she’s not willing to offend anyone she respects, even if they’re in the news for controversy.

The “Girl’s Trip” actress explained her approach to speaking about others during her recent sit-down with Cosmopolitan for their 2022 Travel issue. Haddish said she refuses to tell jokes about people that she wouldn’t be comfortable saying to their faces. This rule was applied when she wrote a quip about Usher but asked for his consent before telling it.

The joke goes, “I curse you out with joy. I hope that you spread it. I hope you spread it like Usher spreads herpes.” Haddish said she made the funny comment in from of the singer. Luckily, the “Moving Mountains” star was not offended and, in fact, found the routine to be hilarious. However, she maintained that she would have obliged if he’d asked her to leave his name out of her performances.

“If he had said, ‘Tiff, don’t say that no more. I don’t like it. I’m not comfortable with you saying that,’ I would stop saying it.”

As we all know, Usher faced several lawsuits for failing to reveal his alleged herpes diagnosis. The singer has never addressed the claims publicly.

In the past, Usher has not been too fond of people making him the butt of jokes. Actor B.J. Novak revealed last month that the singer was furious while being pranked during a 2003 appearance on “Punk’d.”