Former Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac has taken aim at his former boss for “excusing” the controversial stand-up routine comedian Tony Hinchcliffe performed at a Donald Trump rally.
In a SubStack published this weekend, Cenac did not hold back when he expressed how “disappointing but not surprising” it was to see Jon Stewart seemingly defending Hinchcliffe from the media backlash he faced for calling Puerto Rico an “island of garbage,” among other racist jokes.
“People seemed surprised Jon’s criticism was towards the media and not Hinchcliffe, who he called ‘very funny,’ excusing the comedian’s participation in a xenophobic rally as the fault of the organizers for booking a ‘roast comedian,'” Cenac wrote. “Having worked for Jon, his response wasn’t really surprising. Disappointing but not surprising.”
While Stewart admitted on The Daily Show that it probably wasn’t “the best decision” for Trump’s campaign to have a “roast comedian” take aim at a “key demographic,” he said, “To be fair, the guy’s just really doing what he does.”
He then openly laughed at a clip from Hinchcliffe’s performance at Netflix’s Roast of Tom Brady earlier this year, where he cracked antisemitic and racist jokes about Jeff Ross and Kevin Hart.
“Yes, yes, of course, terrible, boo,” Stewart said. “There’s something wrong with me. I find that guy very funny. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you. I mean, bringing him to a rally and having him not do roast jokes?”
Cenac pointed out that Stewart is widely considered a “trusted” political voice. By defending Hinchcliffe, Cenac wrote, “’America’s trusted’ voice wasn’t defending comedy as much as suggesting to racists maybe if their hate speech had made him laugh, he might have their backs too.”
He also called Stewart out for not speaking out against Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K. and Joe Rogan.
“When it comes to criticizing other comedians, Jon in his unique position often chooses to close ranks the way cops do when a fellow officer is under investigation for impropriety,” Cenac wrote.
Cenac left The Daily Show in 2012 after he and Stewart got into an explosive confrontation due to an offensive impression Stewart wanted to perform on the show.
Despite their feud, he later returned to the show for Stewart’s last episode in 2015.