A not-so-funny thing happened when Tony Hinchcliffe practiced the racist shtick he told at Donald Trump’s rally during a club gig the night before: Nobody laughed.
That’s the word from NBC, which detailed Hinchcliffe’s workshopping of his controversial material at the Stand in Manhattan on Saturday. An NBC News producer who was in the audience and three other spectators spilled the tea on Hinchcliffe’s trial run.
Hinchcliffe invited widespread scorn and a disavowal from Trump’s campaign by calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at his Madison Square Garden campaign event on Sunday. He used the same line on Saturday at the club.
“The joke did not draw laughs, just a handful of awkward chuckles,” NBC wrote.
An undeterred Hinchcliffe repeatedly told the audience that his bit would get a better reception at the rally, the network reported.
Tony Hinchcliffe’s comedy gig at the Trump rally sparked controversy.
ANGELA WEISS via Getty Images
At the rally, Hinchcliffe also told a distasteful crack about Latinos being unable to pull out. In addition, he joked about Black people carving watermelons instead of pumpkins.
Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt acknowledged on “Fox & Friends” that the Puerto Rican jab was “in poor taste” but blamed the media for highlighting it.
“I think it is sad that the media will pick up on one joke that was made by a comedian rather than the truths that were shared by the phenomenal list of speakers that we had,” she said.
A clip of podcaster Joe Rogan previously recommending that Trump hire Hinchcliffe to write “bangers” for him circulated on X Monday.
It is not clear whether Hinchcliffe got the MSG gig based on Rogan’s advice.
