Comedian who trashed Puerto Rico at Trump MSG slams media on podcast

The comedian who caused a stir by calling Puerto Rico “trash island” at a Donald Trump campaign event at Madison Square Garden in late October devoted a subsequent episode of his podcast to mocking the controversy and the media for treating the joke as political responsibility.

“I beg your pardon,” said Hinchcliffe in his Kill Tony live, with a short pause for impact at the beginning of the episode, “to absolutely no one. Not Puerto Ricans, not whites, not blacks, not Palestinians, not Jews, not my own mother. During filming, I bullied my own mother. Nobody cut it out. No headlines about me making fun of my own mother.”

Hinchcliffe was the guest comedian who opened the Trump rally, appearing in the bleachers of the 19,500-seat stadium among several Trump surrogates and defenders. The tone of the rally was angry and filled with resentment, with speakers making several racist and misogynistic comments; Experts compared it to the notorious Nazi rally that took place at the stadium in 1939. The tone was set by Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” ridiculed Latinos for their use of birth control, and then called Jews cheap and Palestinians stone throwers.

An uproar ensued, with reports that the Trump campaign feared Hinchcliffe’s joke about the US territory could undermine its foray into Latino voters. Trump’s top adviser Peter Navarro called Hinchcliffe “the biggest, dumbest asshole to ever hit the comedy pike.” What followed was a wave of angry celebrity reactions on social media that dominated the week leading up to Election Day. But Trump won 46 percent of the Latino vote in the election, helping him easily defeat Vice President Kamala Harris.

Monday evening Hinchcliffe Kill Tony The podcast released its latest episode, recorded the day after Trump’s event with MSG. In a live stand-up comedy podcast show that premiered in 2013, Hinchcliffe showcases his crude, offensive humor alongside other comics with a similarly dark sensibility inciting him. There is also a live band and a studio audience. Monday’s episode began with Hinchcliffe directly addressing the controversy, and shortly before his anti-apology to anyone, he told his audience that he had recently given a speech “about freedom of speech.”

“Believe it or not, I am currently under attack in the news,” Hinchcliffe told the crowd. “I don’t know if you guys know this, but in my free speech speech I mentioned Puerto Rico, where they currently have a landfill problem where all their landfills are full to the brim – I think I’m the only person who knew about it,” he said. “Sorry, with that said, I just want to say I love Puerto Ricans. They are very smart people. They’re smart, they’re street smart, and they’re smart enough to know when they’re being used as political fodder. And right now it’s happening.”

References to the scandalous joke were peppered throughout the rest of the episode. Kill Tonyincluding a co-host who said that because he’s “Australian, it’s the closest thing to a Puerto Rican you can get on short notice.”

Hinchcliffe then admitted that Trump’s last rally may not have been the ideal place to debut the piece.

“It might not have been the best place to perform at the time,” he said. “But anyway, to the mainstream media and to everyone who tries to smear me on the Internet: this is what I do and that will never change.”

The comedian also responded to the uproar over his joke on X (formerly Twitter) in October, responding to posts by vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who criticized his humor.

“These people have no sense of humor,” he wrote on the platform. “It’s crazy that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his “busy schedule” to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it look racist. I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I laughed at everyone… watch the whole episode. I’m Comedian Tim… maybe it’s time to change your tampon.”