By james art NEW YORK (AP) — Of the nearly 30 speakers who recently warmed up for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe drew the most attention with racist remarks.
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but right now there is literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said, later including obscene and racist comments about Hispanics, Jews and blacks.
The comments led to condemnation from Democrats and Puerto Rican celebrities, with Ricky Martin sharing a clip from the Hinchcliffe set titled: “This is what they think of us.”
The Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Daniel Alvarez said in a statement.
Here’s what you need to know about Hinchcliffe, his comedy style and the response to his Madison Square Garden comments.
Hinchcliffe, who grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, is a stand-up comedian who specializes in the roast style, in which comedians take the podium to skewer a celebrity victim with personal and often tasteless jokes. He has written and appeared on eight Comedy Central Roasts, including ones on Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady.
Even fellow comedians aren’t immune. At Snoop Dogg’s roast, Hickliff joked about the comedian Lounell, who is Black, who is on the Underground Railroad. Of the honorees, he said: “Snoop, you look like the California Raisin who got addicted to heroin.”
He had a Netflix special in 2016 — Tony Hinchcliffe: One Shot — that was shot in one continuous take. But he is perhaps best known for hosting the Kill Tony podcast since 2013, which features both professional and amateur comedians performing in front of a panel of judges for 60 seconds and then enduring their criticism.
He’s starting to open up for comics like Joe Rogan, who did a three-hour interview with Trump on his podcast last week, and Jeff Ross, and has been credited with Martha Stewart’s bawdy zingers about Justin Bieber’s roast.
He has faced backlash before, most notably after he used a racial slur in 2021 about fellow Asian-American comedian Pen Dang during a concert in Austin, Texas. Hinchcliffe was dropped by his talent agency WME and several of his scheduled concerts were cancelled. He never apologized.
“I knew what I did was not wrong. It wasn’t even the worst thing I did this week,” he told Variety earlier this year. “It was so shocking to me because it was a joke and my position is that comedians should never apologize for a joke, they should never stop working if everyone is after them and they should never slow down.”
Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz called Hinchcliffe “dumb” and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat with Puerto Rican roots, called it “super upsetting.”
Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who is up for re-election this year in a state heavily populated by Puerto Ricans, wrote on social media that “the joke bombed for a reason” and “Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans!”
Roast – or insult – comedians often claim that there are no lines in comedy and that anything, no matter how sensitive, is fair game. Hinchcliffe responded to his Madison Square Garden set with a variation on don’t expect an apology.
“These people have no sense of humor,” he complained to X. “Insane that a VP candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist. I love Puerto Rico and vacationing there.”
Hinchcliffe has previously made controversial jokes about Sean “Diddy” Combs, George Floyd and the Baltimore Bridge collapse.
“I think people need to realize that we are professionals. And yes, of course, we’re dealing with the consequences of what’s going on,” he told Variety.