Nine Club laugh track, Kelly Hart, has a long history of well-known, well-documented homophobia, it’s no secret within the skateboarding industry. I can personally recall conversations about it while working for éS (who never officially put him on the team for something like 7 years), dating back to 2009.
In fact, the last time I saw Roger Bagley in early 2021, I was making candles for The Nine Club & he visited the studio to pick up their final order. At one point conversation, Kelly's name came up & I asked Roger, "Is Kelly still a homophobe?” Without hesitation, Roger's reply was "Oh yeah!”
At the time, Roger had not yet taken to Twitter with his anti-trans, pro-Charlie Kirk, pro-Trump, pro-manosphere, Andrew-Tate-hand-gesture-making, right-wing agenda, so I was completely unaware of his ethical and moral leanings.
He did, however, for some odd reason, use a picture with me for his Tinder profile photo. which I found quite perplexing. Maybe flattering? Slide 2.
I’ll be producing the receipts & some thoughts on The Nine Club’s long history with problematic behavior & broadcasting in general, but in the meantime, here is a glorious video of a sad, lonely, very drunk, very frightened Kelly Hart getting checked outside (presumably a bar) for his alleged use of one of his favorite a homophobic slurs.
Don't feel bad for Kelly. Don't make excuses. This video isn’t even a year old. This video is exactly what it looks like—a much needed humbling—not some "random" occurrence of a "crazy guy” who just so happened to single Kelly out, deciding to chase & film him while reciting a fabricated script.
Skip the mental gymnastics on this one, okay? Kelly is known for drunken altercations with strangers in public, they are also well-documented.
Kelly is also old enough to know better, but the privileged OC white boy, who used to lie about being from Laguna Beach, while residing in the suburban, non-coastal, very MAGA, strip-mall-ridden city of Laguna Niguel, chooses not to.
Hopefully he gets the drinking under control because by 41 ... the likelihood of him shaking the hatred of marginalized groups who've done nothing to him personally, is slim. There's always hope, though.