Presidential rallies are not the place to hold a comedy show. 

I can understand a few jokes here and there, but to have a speaker come and tell problematic jokes the whole time on stage is a different story. 

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe spoke at a Trump rally on October 27th and made terrible jokes the whole time he was on stage. 

To start his speech off, Hinchcliffe promoted his sponsorship with MyPillow. But after he told the crowd to use his promo code to get deals on pillows, he began talking about censorship. 

Now, censorship is a hard topic to approach, but Hinchcliffe dove straight into it and told his perspective. He mentions how he hosts a show every week and gets “updates on words [they’re] allowed to use and not use anymore.” 

My question is, why is he complaining about this at a Trump rally and not educating himself on why he cannot say these words? I understand the immediate shock when someone mentions that you cannot use a certain word anymore because it is offensive, but the next step you should take is to educate yourself.

If you don’t know why you shouldn’t say the word, educate yourself and then make opinions when you have the full understanding. Regardless of personal thoughts, it is important to respect everyone and refrain from using harmful words. 

After a bit more rambling, Hinchcliffe mentions to the crowd that “there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.” What is this island of garbage he is referring to? 

Puerto Rico. 

This was only the beginning of his awful jokes. 

Then, Hinchcliffe said that the Democratic party was looking “more and more like a P. Diddy party” and that Travis Kelce “might be the next OJ Simpson.” 

So now he is making jokes about a heinous predator and an alleged killer. Who benefits from these jokes? 

No one.

Perhaps it boosts his ego when people laugh at them.

Then, the racist jokes began. Hinchcliffe refers to a Black person in the crowd, says he’s his friend, and then says that they had a Halloween party and “carved watermelons together.” Shortly after, Hinchcliffe began to talk about Israel and Palestine, saying that they should settle their issues with a match of rock, paper, and scissors. 

“You know the Palestinians are going to throw rock every time,” Hinchcliffe says. “But you also know the Jews have a hard time throwing that paper.”

Ah yes, blatant racism. So funny! 

Many Trump supporters may say that none of this matters because it was not Trump who said these jokes explicitly. But Hinchcliffe was at a Trump rally. Therefore, what he says is automatically linked to Trump. 

But I do have to hand it to Trump, he did speak out against Hinchcliffe. He admits to not knowing who Hinchcliffe is, and then reporter Sean Hannity asked if Trump wished Hinchcliffe didn’t speak at the rally.

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if it is a big deal or not, but I don’t want anyone making nasty jokes or stupid jokes,” Trump said in response. “But probably he shouldn’t have been there.” 

So even Trump thinks Hinchcliffe shouldn’t have been there. Something must be wrong if Trump says your jokes are “nasty.”

I’ve spent a lot of time criticizing Trump’s rally, but I cannot mention Hinchcliffe’s jokes without mentioning George Lopez making similar jokes at a Harris rally in Arizona. 

Lopez spent the majority of his speaking time discussing how he is excited to have Harris and Walz in office. He did not take this opportunity to only tell jokes. But Hinchcliffe did. 

The jokes Lopez made were surrounding Mexican stereotypes. 

“Donald Trump said he was going to build a wall,” Lopez said. “And George Lopez said, you better build it in one day because if you leave that material out there overnight…”

Then, Lopez mentions that Trump was going to make Mexico pay for the wall and that they “can’t even really split a check at a restaurant.”

He made a couple of similar jokes to Hinchcliffe, but notice how Lopez only makes jokes about the people of his own ethnicity.

Hinchcliffe made his whole speech surrounding jokes, but Lopez didn’t. They both went about their speeches in completely different ways.

Even though Lopez is allowed to make those jokes, I’m not sure if presenting them at a political rally was the best choice.

Rallies of that nature should stay political; leave the jokes for the Kill Tony podcast.