Meet Tony Hinchcliffe, the Comic Whose Racist Jokes Rocked Trump’s MSG Rally

Cortez replied by writing on X, “Can’t get over this dude telling someone else to change tampons when he’s the one s******* bricks in his Depends after realizing opening for a Trump rally and feeding red-meat racism alongside a throng of other bigots to a frothing crowd does, unironically, make you one of them,” adding, “You don’t ‘love Puerto Rico.’’ You like drinking piña coladas. There’s a difference.”

Has Hinchcliffe gotten into trouble before?

This isn’t the comic’s first brush with controversy. Back in May 2021, after being introduced at an Austin, Texas gig by fellow comedian Peng Dang, Hinchcliffe used a racial slur onstage while talking about Dang. The remarks were caught on video and widely circulated on social media, resulting in Hinchcliffe being dropped by his talent agency, WME, as well as a few scheduled gigs.

The comic, who is now represented by United Talent Agency, has never apologized for the incident. In October 2023, while appearing on the YouTube show “TRIGGERnometry,” Hinchcliffe accused Dang of being “a Chinese spy,” and theorized that the backlash was “an orchestrated attack by the Chinese media.”

In response, Dang told Variety earlier this year: “I thought most spies gather classified information related to science, technology or government affairs. Why would any country send a spy to be a stand-up comedian? What kind of intelligence would I get from doing comedy? At that moment in time, there was a rise in Asian hate. It was backed by statistics. I know people personally who were injured in Texas.”

Within the same article, Hinchcliffe doubled down on his comments. “I knew that what I had done was not wrong. It wasn’t even the worst thing I did that week,” he told Variety in April. “I couldn’t believe it when that video came out, and it was one of my former openers doing it. It was so dumbfounding to me because it was a joke, and my stance is that comedians should never apologize for a joke, should never stop working if everyone comes after them and should never slow down. In fact, they should utilize anything that happens to them for more material.”