Taking Out the Trash

Tony Hinchcliffe's Puerto Rico diss stirred up a news cycle where the only winner is Tony Hinchcliffe.

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Tony Hinchcliffe was not a household name before this past Sunday. However, if you are one of a specific demographic that is immersed in social media algorithms that have determined you will watch one to three minute clips of “stand up comedy,” you probably know him well.

For over a decade, Hinchcliffe has been the primary host of “Kill Tony,” a live podcast/event that gives a grab-bag of aspiring comedians one minute sets and then often several more minutes of ridicule by Tony and his fellow co-hosts, a rotating cast of actually successful comedians and other industry veterans who aren’t really funny and can best be described as “morons,” of which Tony is King. Sometimes, these clips are quite funny; Hinchcliffe’s role as a dry, insulting skeptic occasionally syncs well with a particularly talented guest. Kill Tony is particularly proud of its unfiltered bona fides, giving its performers a “no subject off-limits” guarantee that means it is rife with slurs and swears and lightly cancelable jokes. Sometimes these jokes are funny! Sometimes they’re not. For the most part, I personally don’t have much of a problem with this kind of environment. I am not trying to cancel Tony Hinchcliffe, who is free to keep doing his brand of mediocre comedy that some people like and occasionally interacting with more talented comedians, whose jokes less-often focus on punching down. Hinchcliffe, of course, is a punch-down guy, one who, if it wasn’t clear by now, not only invites but depends on the kind of reaction to his work that he’s gotten this week. He got one of the biggest possible stages — opening for Donald Trump — and used it to great effect. Not great effect in the moment, to be clear — his jokes bombed even with a Trump rally crowd, which is saying something — but great effect afterwards in the news cycle that has followed. You can see a shorter and less consequential version of this following his appearance on “College Gameday” in which he called an annoying freshman University of Texas fan a “prepubescent lesbian,” “Brokeback Bob the Builder,” and “Matthew McKinda Gay.” They say in times of pressure you revert to the skills you know best, and it’s clear that when he’s on national TV, all Hinchcliffe has is some lackluster gay jokes. The Bob the Builder one was almost funny as the kid was wearing a hardhat, but the Brokeback part didn’t really add anything to the hit? Whatever. Now you know who Tony Hinchcliffe is.