Tony Hinchcliffe, a podcaster and comedian most well known for his appearances on Comedy Central's roasts of popular celebrities, has doubled down on a series of controversial jokes he made at a Donald Trump rally Sunday night about Latinos, immigration and the territory of Puerto Rico, which sparked widespread criticism.
Tony Hinchcliffe speaks during a campaign rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden in New ... [+]
Hinchcliffe, host of the “Kill Tony” podcast, made jokes at a Trump rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden that included calling Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage" and saying Latinos "love making babies."
The comments were immediately hit with backlash from Trump’s political opponents including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who is of Puerto Rican descent, and Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz, who called Hinchcliffe an "a-hole" and a “jackwad” in response.
The Trump campaign moved to distance itself from the comedian after backlash began—senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement to multiple outlets the Puerto Rico joke "does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign"—but Hinchcliffe himself has refused to back down and said critics "have no sense of humor."
Hinchcliffe, who began his comedy career at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood, has a stand-up special on Netflix, hosts a top-20 comedy podcast and most recently appeared at "The Roast of Tom Brady” in May.
He was dropped from his talent agency and cut from scheduled shows with Joe Rogan after he made a series of jokes capitalizing on Asian stereotypes during a set in 2021, in which he called a fellow comedian a slur and performed in an accent.
Two years later, he appeared on the YouTube show “TRIGGERnometry” to call the backlash “an orchestrated attack by the Chinese media” and said in an interview comedians should never apologize for a joke.
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Hinchcliffe, 40, wrote for the "Comedy Central Roast" series before launching his own online course called "RoastMaster Class." He has toured internationally with podcaster Joe Rogan and hosts his “Kill Tony” podcast at Rogan's Comedy Mothership club in Austin, Texas. The podcast has run for more than a decade and his manager described Hinchcliffe to Variety as an "unapologetic original voice." He’s a regular guest on the “Joe Rogan Experience,” one of the most popular podcasts in the word.
“These Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do,” Hinchcliffe said at the Trump rally. “There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”
Bad Bunny, one of the most popular musicians in the world, backed Harris shortly after Hinchcliffe's appearance Monday night. The rapper, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is Puerto Rican and showed his support by posting multiple videos to Instagram in which Harris criticized Trump’s response to hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. Singer Ricky Martin, who was born in Puerto Rico, commented on the joke and said "this is what they think of us" in a post on Instagram. Puerto Rican artist Luis Fonsi, famous for the song "Despacito" also called the jokes racist.