Comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears have been accused of child sex abuse in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The suit claims Haddish and Spears abused two siblings, a female when she was 14 years old and the girl’s brother when he was seven. On both occasions, the children, dubbed Jane Doe and John Doe, were allegedly told they were acting.
Representation for both Haddish and Spears have characterized the suit as a shakedown and said the allegations are untrue.
It’s alleged in the suit that Jane, now 22, was encouraged by Spears and Haddish in 2013 to mimic the motions of oral sex for a comedy skit, the Daily Beast first reported.
The teen was allegedly made to watch a skit of coeds “moaning and making sexual noises” as they both ate a sub sandwich “in a manner that simulated the act of fellatio.”
Spears then allegedly told the girl “to mimic what she had seen on the screen, including the noises precisely like what she heard throughout the video.”
“Haddish verbally explained what was expected of Plaintiff Jane Doe and then showed Plaintiff Jane Doe how to give fellatio, including movements, noises, moaning, and groaning,” the lawsuit continues.
“I tried to mimic what they wanted me to mimic, but it still came out just super uncomfortable,” Jane recalled to the Daily Beast. “I knew when I left the booth that I didn’t complete what they wanted me to do.”
The girl was allegedly paid $100 by Haddish and sent home.
Jane’s brother was allegedly touched inappropriately by Spears a year later, when he was seven.
The boy’s family was told the child was filming content to show Nickelodeon, but he ended up in a comedy skit that briefly ended up on “Funny or Die,” titled “The Mind of a Pedophile.”
The Daily Beast watched the content in question and said the skit includes Haddish playing the child’s guardian; she leaves him with Spears, who is playing a pedophile.
“John spends most of the video clad only in his underwear as Spears’ character leers at him through two holes cut into a newspaper he pretends to read,” the Daily Beast described the sketch. “ … The camera zooms in suggestively on the 7-year-old’s buttocks and crotch while he plays. Spears sprays baby oil onto the child’s back and massages it into his shoulders in one scene, and at another point the child plays with a train in a manner that suggests phallic masturbation. In another sequence, Spears smokes a cigarette while observing the child nude in a bathtub and pours water on his feet.”
The skit ends with the text, “WATCH WHO YOU LEAVE YOUR KIDS WITH!”
“Funny Or Die found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content,” a statement from Funny or Die said. “We were not involved with the conceptualization, development, funding, or production of this video. It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 immediately after becoming aware of its existence.”
Haddish’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, dismissed the accusations in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.
“Plaintiff’s mother, Trizah Morris, has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years,” Brettler said. “Every attorney who has initially taken on her case — and there were several — ultimately dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were meritless and Ms. Haddish would not be shaken down.”
“Now, Ms. Morris has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit,” the attorney added. “The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action.”
Spears’ attorney, Debra Opri, told the Times her client “isn’t going to fall for any shakedown.”
A previous version of this article called the sketch “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes” based on a Daily Beast report that was later corrected.