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'What the f*** we gonna do': Leslie Jones takes a dig at MLK statue unveiled in Boston on 'The Daily Show'

'We gotta talk about this, cause you know it's messed up when Black people and the proud boys hate the same statue,' Jones said

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Comedian Leslie Jones, who is known for her outrageous banters, returned to television as a chief guest of 'The Daily Show' on Tuesday, January 17, 2023, to speak over Boston's new controversial Martin Luther King Jr statue. The former star of 'Saturday Night Live' and the failed reboot of 'Ghostbusters' spoke about "The Embrace" sculpture as she began guest hosting the show for the week after Trevor Noah's departure.

Although many people have made fun of the statue's appearance, Jones brought a new angle to it, saying that the statue resembled oral sex. "They are celebrating you in Boston right now," Jones exclaimed, indirectly pointing at the people who participated in the activity. Jones then turned the criticism against the statue, which included everyone from right-wing pundits to Coretta Scott King's cousin, saying she was interacting only with Black audience members as King was "our civil rights icon".

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"Okay, Black people, what the f*** we gonna do? We gotta talk about this, cause you know it's messed up when Black people and the proud boys hate the same statue," she said. The 55-year-old then became more thoughtful as she suggested that the statue might start to grow in people's minds with time, just like the Eiffel Tower as people didn't like it initially when it was unveiled. "Maybe it's just a matter of time, in time we will see this statue for what it truly is," she joked.

She then returned to it with correspondent Dulcé Sloan, who claimed that designers never made Martin Luther King's statue correctly, specifically referring to the one in Washington DC, before addressing "White people". "The man literally marched for freedom and his statue doesn't have no legs! Say what you will about them goofy a** conservatives, but they know how to make a statue. It's a White dude on a horse, it's always a White dude on a horse, there's no confusion," she said, adding, "That's what the liberals need to do, make a statue of MLK in his suit on a horse." 

When Jones asked Sloan if King even had a horse, Sloan responded, "I don't know and neither do y'all. So put him on a horse, put him on a throne, hell, put him in Joe Biden's Corvette! At least we would know who it was."

The inspiration behind the sculpture is a photograph of the couple hugging in 1964 after learning that Dr King Jr had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Brooklyn-based artist Hank Willis Thomas said the sculpture is dedicated to "love and not war", and that it symbolized the strength of the iconic couple's marriage. On January 17, King's family members were there to watch the sculpture's unveiling in Boston. 

"Disrespectful towards MLK"

Former Guardian art critic Waldemar Januszczak said the 19-ton sculpture was a "particularly bad monument to Martin Luther King". Other Twitter users, too, mocked the sculpture. "There are a few angles that make it look like Cerebus was taken for a walk," commented one critic. "Disrespectful towards MLK," opined one, while another tweeted, "My stomach hurts #MLKDay2023."

One user tweeted, "Looks pretty bad from Hell..." Another wrote, "I celebrate all things MLK but I don’t get this one. Doesn’t look like an embrace. Perhaps re-do it."

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