Joke from Tony Hinchcliffe apparently bombed when he told it on Saturday night, a day before New York rally
The podcaster who provoked an angry backlash against Donald Trump’s campaign with a racist joke about Puerto Rico reportedly tested out the gags at a comedy club the night before delivering them at Sunday’s televised rally at Madison Square Garden.
Tony Hinchcliffe, whose 11-minute set has thrown Trump’s team into damage limitation mode a week before the presidential election, made the same quip, calling the territory “a floating island of garbage”, at the Stand club in New York on Saturday, according to NBC.
The joke bombed, drawing just a few awkward chuckles, NBC said, citing one of its own producers and three audience members.
I see lots of people talking about how bad this is, but I haven’t seen anyone talk about it in light of Trump’s utter mishandling of Hurricane Maria.
It’s been 7 years but it’s absolutely salt in the wound.
I’m a big supporter of comics being given leniency for offensive jokes, and if this guy had made that joke at a comedy club, I would not have had a problem with it, because the presumption is that it’s a joke—nothing is meant to be taken seriously.
But this was a political rally. Totally different situation. When you make jokes there, they’re understood to reflect the politician conducting the rally. And in this case, it did.
I hope Mr. Hinchcliffe never finds work as a comedian again. Not because he’s a bad comic, not because he might actually be racist against Puerto Ricans, but because he’s a catastrophically stupid human being.
I think he will be murdered by Donald’s cultists if the election goes bad for Donald. Just a hunch based on the fact that Repubs have been actively radicalizing domestic terrorists for decades.
Maybe one MAGA lunatic will try but a KKK lunatic will jump in front of the bullet to protect a fellow racist. One can dream.
He has a pretty big podcast
I also see clips from Kill Tony hawked a lot on YouTube, and the most this guy has going for him is he’s a shock jock. Making a crass, low-hanging quip while grinning at the camera is hardly an indicator of a lofty comic personally, but I’m sure his popularity will continue after this.
I hope he gets an earful from his listeners then, and that they stop listening to him.
I doubt it
It’d be funny if it was just about grilling and craft beers with nothing spicier than a Full House (the original) joke, but I somehow doubt it.
It certainly would have been received differently. In one case you’re calling for the segregation or eradication of an entire ethnicity, in the other case you’re making a joke about somebody calling for the segregation or eradication of an entire ethnicity.
Some things are funny because of how horrible they are, like dead baby jokes, but if you ever attempt to orchestrate the real equivalent to one then you should be shot on sight.
Find it pretty ironic that so many people are suddenly shocked and appalled at a roast comedian making a joke about Puerto Rico, calling him racist, when the Boricuas aren’t a specific race, it’s a nationality. Saying how appalled they are that the republicans would allow such a bad comedian to say a joke in such bad taste, as though saying shocking ignorant things is something new for that group.
While at the same time completely disregarding how the United States on both sides of the political spectrum has completely taken advantage of, corrupted and destroyed the islands of Puerto Rico, all while not allowing for the same level of political representation. Feels pretty hypocritical to me.
This comedian just said exactly how the US treats the people and lands of Puerto Rico, like trash…
“It’s just a joke bro, they aren’t even a race” made me chuckle. The best part was doubling down at the end that it’s really America that’s racist. Great satire, even if unintentional.
Trying to Streisand a shit comedian is the joke. This is why PR will never be treated with respect.
Ah, you’re a racist bigot too. That explains a lot.
How is starting a conversation about actual Puerto Ricans, to divert attention away from a bullshit political rally racist? You seem to have missed my point completely. I am calling out people for giving attention to this hack comedian instead of the actual problems the Borinqueños face every day. I don’t think the majority of the people here who are so appalled at this non-sense actually care about the people of Puerto Rico. They just want to ‘thoughts and prayers’ their way to end supposed racism.
Instead of spreading more hate for things that don’t really matter. I would encourage you to learn about the people of all the colonized territories of the US. Name calling isn’t helping anyone.
No, it was a racist joke and an attempt to stir up hate for an “other.” But keep going on bleating your “well akshually” and broadcasting your moron status.
The point is that the people who are so appalled by this, are the same people who know nothing about the the people they are supposedly protecting while simultaneously disregarding how the people they are defending have been treated both historically and presently.
The same thing can be said about the Hawaiians and Samoans and the Chamorros. These are colonized peoples with a relevant and significant problems caused overwhelmingly by the mistreatment of the US government. Tony Hinchcliffe and all other ignorant puppets are irrelevant. Stop giving attention to the wrong things. PR has real issues that need to be addressed today, and they lack real representation due to poor policy. These are things we can do something about. Who cares about some rally, who actually watches this bullshit.
I’ve heard this shit before…
“Muslim isn’t a race”
“Puerto Rico isn’t a race”
funny how most members of the not-race are always somewhat brown aren’t they?
missing the point. learn about the actual people if you care so much. The word racist has been overused sooo much it has lost all relevance. It doesn’t fucking matter, some idiot on some roll call of some political shitshow means nothing, actual action that could be done today for the people of PR matter.
wrong. the reason that joke is made about Puerto Rico and not Kansas is racism. if you can’t see that you’re either naive or wilfully trying to obfuscate. the frequency with which you’d like the word to be used doesn’t change the fact that it is a racist joke. the joke is not about the nationality.
by the way, their nationality is american.
I actually think the joke is about tearing people down, and could be applied to anyone. I mean that is this whole comedians shtick. Many people from Kansas and the south are called ‘white trash’, as a joke. You can certainly place whatever judgement you want on people but I still think it’s ignorant and missing the point.
You don’t know anything about the people you are offended for. Case in point, don’t ever tell a Borinqueños that their nationality is American. While they are legally American citizens they most often identify as Puerto Rican first. They had no choice in their American assimilation just like the Hawaiians, Samoans or the Chamorros. They were all colonized and still mistreated by the US today.
you’re being willfully obtuse or ignorant. no one said jokes couldn’t apply to anyone. the point is these jokes didn’t. they only applied to minorities. fucks sake if you didn’t watch the thing just don’t comment will you? the dude made a black people/watermelon jokes and you’re out here like 🤓 emm actually everyone likes watermelons so this can’t be racist. just stop. this is embarrassing.
Not at all what I am saying. I am saying that this guy does this for a living. Look up the guys comedy, it’s literally his whole career, not something that just popped up yesterday. It’s not the first time he’s been called out for it, and it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that he says stuff like this. He says it about literally everyone, to include minorities. He tears people down and makes fun of people for a profession. Why is what this guy said at some bullshit rally important? He says this stuff all over the world, most days of the week. Stop giving this guy attention, he only gets more fans and more tickets sold. Going on the internet and being offended is making the problem worse. I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.
So you think you could just walk outside, call someone “white trash” and nothing would happen? Because it’s a “just a joke bro”? You need to step off the Internet and touch some grass.
Again, not the point, and not what I think. I am not saying there aren’t repercussions to saying words. I am saying giving this whole thing attention does nothing but just feed into the game. The more people talk about this the more these people are relevant. The engine of the right wing conservative party in the US is about the fear that they are becoming irrelevant and they are losing power. By paying attention your giving them power. Stop contributing to it.
If you care about the people of PR then vote for people who support PR, which is the best you can do other than attempt to educate people on the mistreatment of their people and what colonization does to the disenfranchised. It’s a national problem, not a party problem, and especially not some irrelevant shock comedians problem.
Alright I see you’re just trolling now lol. My bad.
And he STILL did the jokes.
I am absolutely not defending this racist’s jokes, so please do not think I am.
I am just going to explain why he still did the joke because I used to do stand-up (nowhere near at this high a level).
Sometimes, you are just convinced a joke is funny. You are absolutely convinced. Nothing will tell you it isn’t funny. The audience isn’t laughing? You told it wrong. Something was off. You have to tell it again because of course it’s funny. It makes you laugh every time you think of it. So you have to try again. And you can get stuck in that loop very easily.
The fact that he finds this joke funny says a ton about him. I get the roast comedy angle people bring up here, but I just don’t see how anyone could find that line funny.
I mean, I’m a leftist, an anti-racist, and yet there are are some racist jokes I still find funny due to the way they’re crafted, even if I don’t tell them anymore because some people still take them on the first degree (both racists and non-racists.)
But I just don’t see the joke here.
It’s him. He’s the joke.
They’re too woke/scared to enjoy it
THoSE people didn’t like it, that means it should smash for MY crowd!
-that guys internal dialogue… Maybe
It’s so odd. I watched the whole thing. Nothing is taken out of context here. He just took a dump on Puerto Rico. Supposedly, he originally was going to call Kamala Harris a cunt, but they were like no no take that out but leave the shitty Puerto Rico joke in. It just seems like he stepped out of his lane by not understanding he was at a political rally where the stakes are different. He was hilarious at the roast of Tom Brady. Too bad he had to go full fascist.
Yeah the joke fits Tony’s IDGAF style of comedy where literally nothing is off limits.
And while in other context it would still be a bad joke, it wouldn’t be taken anywhere near as bad as at a political rally like this. It doesn’t come across as a joke at all given the other political rhetoric surrounding it.
It’s especially insane since he was literally just at Madison Square Garden a month or so ago for like 3 days doing a massive Kill Tony special with 3 something like 300 other smaller comedians.
Right? In the correct setting and with a lot of jokes on the environment in the set leading up to it… he might have gotten away with it. But at a fascist rally in MSG he was just vocalizing the sentiment in the room, like court jesters would do.
Now the trump team can climb on their podium and cry how everyone is a snowflake and point at this outrage to invigorate their base.
I guess they underestimated the backlash.
The audience is at least 50% of this type of joke. Like if the punch line was making fun of Trump treating Puerto Rico like trash it could work as a joke.
But in the context of Trump’s wishdotcom nazi rally it isn’t a joke, it is just being cruel because the audience agrees with the statement. There isn’t a punchline, it is just calling Puerto Rico names and laughing at them like the bullies that maga idiots are.
It’s interesting to me. He read the room just fine, he just didn’t read the room’s global position.
He’s a talented comedian in the roast/shock kinda of genre, but a political rally? A bit out of his element. And a bit stupid for the GOP to think he’d be a good fit here.
Sucks to suck.
I swear I head another comedian “test” that joke about 5 years ago only referring to the UK, not PR.
Yeah, it’s an old joke he stole. The first clue is the fact that he’s talking about the giant island of garbage which first made headlines years ago.
It’s an old hacky joke
I hope this guy costs him big lol moron racist with a “joke”
He really should’ve brought a cowbell to signal the audience.
Why was he roasting Puerto Rico and not Walz or Harris? Seems like a rookie move.
Apparently he was going to: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-shock-comic-was-set-to-call
We can always rely on the Republican Party for empathy and understanding:
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, adopted an unapologetic stance, telling NBC that Americans “need to stop getting so offended”.
Roast comedy isn’t a big deal. I’d expect any roast comic not to help out the man making Hitler’s time in hell embarrassing by drawing comparisons with him, though. Do a roast at a Harris rally if you wanna bring the goods.
Definitely nazi shit in context.
I hadn’t seen anyone mentioning that he’s a roast comic until I watched John Stewart address this. That does kinda change how I feel about the jokes. Doesn’t change how I feel about him accepting a gig at a Trump rally, though.
Yes, this is the critical flaw in this whole ordeal.
Comedians make tasteless jokes all the time and they generally get forgiven since they often exist as boundary pushers. A comedian makes 100 jokes that ride the line and push a little bit, and 1 of them was too far or bombs or whatever, no biggie, live and let live.
But going to this event, at this venue, with this crowd is not the same scenario. It sets a tone and he even mentions it in his set, that he doesn’t normally play to a room full of grandmas and babies or whatever.
I see your point, but that racist dipshit should have realized a few things: not everyone knows that he’s a roast comic, it wasn’t a typical “roast” type of atmosphere, and he should have roasted the opposition, not people who the Republican Party is trying to attract.
What an idiot. This disaster is probably the closest he’ll ever get to fame.
