Sarah Silverman Says She's 'Done' Using Gay Slurs in Her Comedy After Kevin Hart Controversy

Sarah Silverman has learned from her mistakes.

TMZ caught up with the 48-year-old comedian on Thursday outside of Craig’s restaurant in Los Angeles, where she addressed her previous use of homophobic slang in tweets that came to surface in the wake of the Kevin Hart-Oscars controversy.

Asked if she would use words like that again, Silverman told TMZ, “I’m done with that.”

“I think I can find other ways to be funny,” she said. “I used to say ‘gay’ all the time — ‘Oh that’s so gay.’ Cause we’re from Boston. We’d go, ‘That’s what you say in Boston. I have gay friends, I just say gay.’ And then I heard myself and realized … it was stupid. And I’m certainly creative enough to think of other words besides that that don’t hurt people.”

Though she wouldn’t comment on Harts situation itself — or Nick Cannon, who retweeted Silverman’s controversial tweets (and similar messages from white female comedians Amy Schumer and Chelsea Handler) in an attempt to defend his friend — Silverman expressed her perspective on the matter.

“Comedians don’t like to be told what to do. Anyone should express themselves as they see fit. And if there are consequences, that’s part of it,” she said. “I f— up all the time.”

Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman

Silverman had originally responded to the outcry over her words by sharing a thread on Twitter by Greg Hogben — an LGBTQ and women’s rights advocate who gave an explanation of why Silverman and other female comedians comments on gay culture weren’t homophobic.

“There’s been a trend of LGBT allies being accused of homophobia recently. Mostly it’s jokes about Trump/Putin relationship,” Hogben tweeted. “The thing is, a lot of gay guys didn’t take offence [sic] to these comments, because we didn’t feel the violence or malicious intent behind it. Because we knew they were jokes. Because we knew these people were LGBT allies.”

Hogben explained he and others in the gay community had “actually PAID to see comediennes like Joan Rivers or Lisa Lampanelli make jokes that involved gay men. And we laughed at them, because we knew they were jokes.”

He went on to share the background of advocacy that Silverman, Schumer and Handler had been involved in before the jokes were made. “We also knew the history and backgrounds of these women. They used their massive platforms to help us long before marriage equality,” he wrote. “And continue to do so.”

“I can’t say the same for Kevin Hart. I can’t find a history of helping at risk LGBT youth,” Hogben continued. “To be honest, his tweets and his stand-up gig saying he’d ‘do anything not to have a gay son,’ made me bristle. In short, it *felt malicious.”

He added, “I appreciate Kevin Hart’s apology and think it’s great that he’s ‘evolved and grown,’ but I don’t think there’s much of a comparison in your tweet. So while I understand your attempt to ‘both sides’ this issue, I hope you can see why some gay men don’t see it the same.”

RELATED: Inside Kevin Hart’s Rough Year: From Oscars Fallout to His Cheating Scandal

This isn’t the first time Silverman has respected remorse for past mistakes.

Speaking about such errors, Silverman recently told The Guardian, “All I can do is learn from it, be changed forever by it, and do what I can to make it right going forward.”

In an interview with Variety published in November, Silverman also addressed the fact that she doesn’t mind holding herself accountable to her past remarks.

“I feel like unless you can admit to those things, you can’t be changed by them and you can’t even forgive yourself for them,” she shared.