Leslie Jones Isn’t Buying Stephen A. Smith’s Apology For Saying Rihanna ‘Ain’t Beyoncé’

Stephen A. Smith has some amends to make.

Appearing this week on “Sherri”, the ESPN commentator was asked about Rihanna performing this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, calling her “spectacular” but adding, “She ain’t Beyoncé.”

On Thursday night, former “Saturday Night Live” star took aim at Smith over the perceived Rihanna diss, calling him out while guest hosting “The Daily Show” this week.

“Dude, no,” she said. “Why would you do this to yourself? You know what, Stephen A. Smith? You need to act like your hairline and back the fuck off!”

But as Jones noted, “the good news” was that Smith had apologized.

Except, as she joked, “the bad news was his apology.”

In a video, Smith said addressed Rihanna, saying, “You are a worthy person to be doing the Super Bowl Halftime Show … I got to be more careful where people twist it and turn it into something it ain’t. My bad on that. Now I got to go, good luck sweetie. Looking forward to seeing you perform.”

“How dare you call Rihanna ‘sweetie,’” Jones responded. “You calling her ‘sweetie’ like you know her. She doesn’t know you! But you know who she does know? Beyoncé.”

Smith offered another apology on the new episode of his podcast “Know Mercy”, saying, “The need to apologize is because Rihanna is being painted as somebody who was disrespected when no disrespect was intended, nor do I believe it was displayed.”

He went on to explain, “I talked about her brilliance and her greatness. I just said, ‘I’m a Beyonce fan. That’s me.’ And there’s no crime in that. Folks don’t have anything better to do? You losing your damn mind.. and this is what really, really bothers me about all of this. It’s flagrant hypocrisy. People compare stuff every day. Ladies and gentlemen, who are you listening to right now? Who the hell are you watching? I debate for a living every day.”

The sports anchor said later in the podcast, “I apologize to Rihanna because of the nonsense that this is percolated into ‘cause she deserved that, ‘cause she didn’t ask to be in that. And I have to be more responsible than that because I didn’t realize people would be so freaking idiotic that they would turn this into something that isn’t. Silly me.”

That said, Smith wasn’t very happy about all the backlash he was getting over his comments.

“It’s ridiculous. Cancel culture has taken a hell over. It’s pathetic,” he said. “It’s almost like people sat up there and said, ‘Well, I don’t have certain positions, so let me make sure nobody else has them either.’ Like bottom feeders, for crying out loud. It’s embarrassing for it to be turned into all of this.”

Rihanna will performa at the Super Bowl on Feb, 12, marking her big return after taken a hiatus from music for several years.