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Trump rally comic reportedly tested racist Puerto Rico joke at comedy club
(www.theguardian.com)
And he STILL did the jokes.
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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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.
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.
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.
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.
While it's worse at a political rally, I don't think this is much better at a comedy club. Mostly because it's not really a joke; it's just offensive. Perhaps if there was some point he was trying to make beyond being racist, but it doesn't seem like it. It's only "funny" if you're already bigoted against Puerto Ricans.
I don’t know. There’s a type of joke that is funny simply because of how ridiculously offensive it is, provided you know the teller doesn’t mean it. People think Sam Kinison was funny and he just yelled and swore a lot. Lots of things can be funny for fairly stupid reasons.
I still think the main problem here is that he told a really offensive joke in the wrong context. If Hinchcliff really is racist then that’s obviously a problem, but I don’t think the joke itself is the issue. If you’re going to take issue with it on its own then you’re treading into the Offense Olympic waters.
I think context is key here. If you tell a Jewish joke at a Bar Mitzvah or comedy club it comes across entirely differently than if you tell it at a Skin Head or Proud Boys rally.
He told the this joke at a Trump rally where accusations of racism and facism abound. He was probably trying to be ironic but it just comes off far more serious than just a joke.
Fundamentally a rally should bring people together. The Trump team knew what they were getting when they hired this guy. Whatever this comedians intentions were, the Trump team is ultimately responsible for their message and to refuse to have Trump repudiate him publicly and immediately peaks volumes.
The Trump team knew what they were getting when they hired this guy.
That's the important point. They don't get to back away and claim it just some random thing that some random guy said.
They knew exactly who this guy was, and they specifically invited him to speak on their stage in front of their audience.
If this guy genuinely went to this rally and was trying to make fun of this sort of racism by telling that joke (i.e., the joke is how stupid it is to believe that), then you would have a point. But I don't see any reason to believe that because he agreed to speak at a Trump rally. Context goes both ways.
I’m not personally familiar with Hinchcliff or his comedy, but what little I’ve seen from fans of his online seems to indicate that this is just his normal shtick. As such, I’m not sure I agree that he went out there to wave a Nazi flag at his fellow Nazis. It would make more sense to me that he took the gig because it paid well and offered him a ton of publicity. The irony is that he’s certainly gotten publicity, but probably not the type he wants.
I'm not seeing where I mentioned him being a Nazi.
I understand being charitable and not assuming bad in people. However, it's not exactly a mystery where Trump stands in this area. I'm a little doubtful this comedian is barely making rent, so this wasn't a gig he had to take. Since he did, he has to accept being part of that context. It was very easy to avoid.
If this ends up costing Trump the election, and Hinchcliff comes out saying that was his master plan, I'll gladly eat my words.
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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
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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
Why was he roasting Puerto Rico and not Walz or Harris? Seems like a rookie move.
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.
but I haven't seen anyone talk about it in light of Trump's utter mishandling of Hurricane Maria.
I've seen MSNBC using the clip of Trump tossing paper towels as part of their coverage of this latest anti Puerto Rico crap.
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”.
JD Vance, adopted an unapologetic stance, telling NBC that Americans “need to stop getting so offended”.
Yet he continues to be offended by couch references...
He really should've brought a cowbell to signal the audience.
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 hope this guy costs him big lol moron racist with a "joke"
And trump and people reviewed and approved it all, word for word, and it was on the teleprompter. Their only surprise is that people, people whom they didn't (and don't) value beyond their vote, were rightfully upset at it. They didn't consider reaction of the PR people, for the same reason that you don't consider your dog when you make a lot of decisions.
But trump entourage travels with a little plastic box they can shove his waddly, acne-infested, shit-stained ass into. They do that for fear that yet ANOTHER one of his own dedicated cult fans might try to shoot him, again. You think that paranoid group constantly talking about "the enemy within" doesn't also vet speakers and speech content to avoid surprises?
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.
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