Matt Mathews apparently woke up and chose grammatical violence. The openly gay Alabama comedian is facing backlash after going on a lengthy rant about pronouns, gender identity, and LGBTQ+ inclusion during a recent podcast appearance — proving once again that sometimes the simplest question can send a conversation somewhere nobody ordered.
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It started with one perfectly ordinary question
During the Aug. 16 episode of Speak on It, host Kandi Burruss was chatting with Mathews about his husband, Rob Killgore, when she asked, “Let’s talk about you and your boo. When did you meet them?” Mathews immediately objected to the pronoun.
“Them? I only got one.”
Burruss explained her reasoning: “These days, I don’t know. I have to know the pronouns before I start talking.”
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And that was apparently the conversational equivalent of tossing a match into a fireworks warehouse.
“We ain’t got no damn pronouns up in here. I got a tallywacker, that’s a he. We don’t do all that s—,” Mathews said. “I ain’t doing all that they/them, LG — that s—.”
Burruss clarified that she was using “them” because she didn’t know Killgore and simply didn’t want to offend anyone. Mathews, however, was nowhere near finished.
Mathews had a whole alphabet to reject
He continued, “F— all that. LGQILMNOPWWF, shut the f— up. You gay, you straight, you white, you Black. You’re a boy, you’re a girl. You got a coochie, you’re a girl,” he said. “Oh, I’m going to piss people off with that.”
Comedian Matt Mathews IMMEDIATELY checked an interview host after she used “them” to refer to his boyfriend while trying to be respectful with pronouns 😳💀👀
“Let’s talk about you and your boyfriend. When did you meet them?”
“Them? I only got one… We ain’t got no damn… pic.twitter.com/nwFp5nQAMF
— Killa 🌺 (@KillaKreww) August 20, 2026
To be fair, he predicted the reaction with remarkable accuracy.
Burruss responded, “I’m sure you pissed people off before.”
“I sure have,” Mathews replied.
The conversation then tried to return to the original question. Burruss asked again when he had met “them,” prompting another round of corrections.
“Him. Him. Him. It ain’t no them. It’s only one of him… Them is plural.”
Burruss eventually explained the intent behind her wording: “I’m just being respectful.”
And there, in a nutshell, is the awkward heart of the entire exchange: one person saying, essentially, please don’t make assumptions, and another saying, please stop making nouns complicated.
Being gay doesn’t automatically make someone a spokesperson
Mathews’ sexuality also makes the controversy more complicated, but not necessarily in the way some might expect. Being an openly gay comedian does not mean Mathews has to agree with every LGBTQ+ issue, embrace every identity label, or become the designated representative for an entire community. Gay people, much like everyone else, are allowed to have wildly different opinions.
At the same time, being part of a marginalized community doesn’t magically make comments about another marginalized group immune from criticism.
That distinction matters here. Mathews has previously made jokes about LGBTQ+ inclusion, including saying “I identify as a horse” in a 2023 post. During a 2025 conversation on Chrisley Confessions, he also said, “I’m not part of the LMNOP community. I make fun of gay people, you know what I mean. I call myself derogatory terms on stage, because it’s not that deep.”
For Mathews, provocative comedy appears to be part of the brand. The question now is whether audiences find this particular routine funny, tired, offensive, or some chaotic combination of all three.
Kandi Burruss was trying to be respectful
Burruss brings another interesting wrinkle to the discussion. The Real Housewives of Atlanta star has spoken publicly about her bisexuality and has advocated for LGBTQ+ rights. She has also expressed a fairly relaxed attitude toward labels, saying in a 2021 interview, “However you want to label me or anybody around me, I don’t really care. I don’t really care about the whole label situation.”
So her use of “them” during the conversation doesn’t appear to have been an attempt to lecture Mathews about gender. She simply didn’t know which pronouns Killgore used and wanted to avoid making an assumption.
That is arguably the funniest part of this whole mess: Burruss was trying to be polite, Mathews was trying to be provocative, and suddenly a podcast conversation about someone’s husband became a full-scale debate about the English language.
The internet, naturally, got involved
Clips of the exchange spread across Instagram and TikTok reaction accounts, generating thousands of comments and plenty of disagreement.
@clipdemon022 Matt Mathews was NOT expecting that pronoun question to turn into this 😳. #mattmathews #pronouns #lgbtq #viralclip
Mathews built his following through comedic “farm chores” videos that began appearing on YouTube and social media in 2023. He has since expanded into touring and describes himself as a “comedian, singer/songwriter, and unapologetic trailblazer.”
Now his comments have pushed him back into the spotlight for something considerably less wholesome than farm chores.
Whether audiences see Mathews’ remarks as comedy, provocation, or simply an unnecessary rant will depend heavily on their tolerance for his particular brand of humor. But one thing is certain: if the goal was to “piss people off,” as Mathews himself put it, the joke appears to have landed exactly where he intended.
And somewhere, an English teacher is quietly wondering why they got dragged into this.
Source: EW