Comedian Katt Williams recently stirred up some controversy after airing his grievances on the podcast Club Shay Shay. Williams briefly touched on his verbal exchange with Wanda Smith. The two have had different perspectives regarding Smith’s infamous conversation with Williams. But the former radio host felt her co-worker and boss at the time should’ve come to her rescue.
Why Wanda Smith was fired from her radio show
Williams doesn’t hold himself back when it comes to clashing with other comedians. In 2018, he famously engaged in a heated discussion with Wanda Smith, who was the host of the Atlanta radio show Frank and Wanda in the Morning for two decades. After spending years as the voice for the city, Smith was ousted following her verbal altercation with Williams. Smith’s firing might not have been a direct result of the roast, however, but her reaction towards it. The veteran comic was confronted by Smith and her husband outside of a night club. Williams asserted that a gun was pulled on him afterwards.
Smith would lose her job not too long afterwards. Her Frank and Wanda co-worker Sophia, who was also let go from the radio show, believed that the Williams incident might’ve been the cause.
“I can’t say, I don’t know,” she once told CBS 46 news (via The Atlanta Voice). “But that may have something to do with it. But, of course, they aren’t going to share that information with us. I can only assume. So I don’t know. Me personally, I felt something big was going to happen because it put the station in a bigger light — not the Katt Williams situation [at the radio station] — but afterward at the club with her husband bringing the gun and that became a big story.”
According to Sandra Rose, Smith reflected on her conversation with Williams on her radio show. A teary eyed Smith told her co-worker and boss Frank Ski that they should’ve gone to commercial break during the roast.
“I did expect you — as the man of the house — to stop the kids from playing. And that never happened,” she told the radio host.
But Ski felt little need to go on break.
“I looked at it as 2 comedian playing the dozens — and you lost. I didn’t feel in the moment that you were hurt,” Ski said. “You’ve got just as much power as I do to go to commercial,” he said. It’s unfair to say I should have stopped it just because you lost.”
Katt Williams recently explained why he roasted Wanda Smith
Williams and Smith had clashing viewpoints towards the reason for the roast. Smith believed that Williams was out to attack her from the beginning.
“Every time I asked him something, he kind of came for me,” she said.
Meanwhile, Williams confided that Smith crossed certain boundaries during their conversation he thought were already established. According to the comic, Smith agreed to avoid talking about his children and controversies before the interview. But Smith would go back on her word, which rubbed the Emmy winner the wrong way.
“You can’t flip up on me because you’re an inferior comedian. I’m going to destroy you and I’m never gonna call you out of your name,” he said on Club Shay Shay.
He also felt Smith was trying to retaliate against Williams at the expense of the homosexual community. Williams believed this was an even greater offense.
“It’s a very thin line I gotta call, but this lady is trying to embarrass me in front of a largely homosexual fanbase. That’s why she got canceled. Gay people don’t take it kindly that you would, as a derogatory [term], call me gay. Gay people don’t feel like it’s derogatory… I didn’t even know any of the stuff that she had done to my fellow comedians until afterwards. I just know that it was a setup,” Williams added.
