Twist as Trump critic defends controversial joke made at rally

Jon Stewart has mocked the hysteria that followed comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s jokes at a Donald Trump rally - prompting further outrage.

Jon Stewart is sticking up for fellow comedian Tony Hinchcliffe after his joke about Puerto Rico at Sunday’s New York City Trump rally set off a media firestorm — and he threw in a hilarious jab at the Harris campaign for good measure.

On Monday night’s The Daily Show, Stewart ran a supercut of left-leaning MSNBC and CNN personalities’ scandalised reactions to the one-liner, in which the noted roast comic and host of “Kill Tony” podcast compared the US territory to a “floating island of garbage”.

The clips ended with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski calling out Hinchcliffe’s “extremely vile so-called jokes”, which Stewart quipped was the name of his first comedy album.

“Obviously in retrospect having a roast comedian come to a political rally a week before Election Day and roasting a key voting demographic is probably not the best decision by the campaign politically,” Stewart said.

“But to be fair, the guy’s really just doing what he does,” he added, before punctuating his point with a montage of clips from the Tom Brady roast in which Hinchcliffe makes outrageous jokes about Jews and black people.

The highlight reel ended with Stewart feigning outrage at the jokes, sarcastically saying “yes, yes of course. Terrible. Boooo!” before attempting to stifle his own laughter at the edgy humour.

Jon Stewart defended comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s offensive jokes at former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. Picture: The Daily Show

“There’s something wrong with me. I find that guy very funny,” he said, still holding back laughter. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you,” he said helplessly before concluding with a timely barb at the Harris campaign.

“Bringing him to a rally and having him not do roast jokes, that’d be like bringing Beyoncé to a rally and having her …” he said before hanging his head — a reference to the recent Harris rally in Texas in which the Grammy winner made a short appearance, but didn’t perform, enraging thousands of attendees.

A noted critic of Trump over the years, Stewart’s unexpected defence of one of his rally speakers drew support from conservatives on X.

“Brilliant by Jon Stewart,” Piers Morgan tweeted.

“Jon Stewart is spot on here,” the End Wokeness account added. “Even he thinks the outrage over MSG is BS.”

“Props to Jon Stewart for admitting he finds Tony Hinchcliffe funny,” added podcaster Johnny Woodard.

But others were disappointed.

“I like Jon Stewart, but he missed the mark here,” one wrote. “Yes Tony is a comedian who does roasting BUT … Tony was there as part of a POLITICAL rally; Tony’s jokes punched down. He didn’t punch up; and Tony made fun of the group of people that the crowds there exclusively HATE.”

“Jon Stewart wants to flex his white male privilege to help his buddy out and mansplain to the world, when we can tell the difference, between a roast to one’s face in camaraderie and a political rally known to be hateful, racist, sexist, divisive + belittling,” added publisher Nikki Fowler.

“Hinchcliffe knew what he signed up for. And of course Stewart included Beyonce’s name because that’s what they do, pile on. Zero white jokes. Women’s rights are on the line, so no, I don’t find his watermelon + garbage island lines funny. You all keep telling the same stale uncreative racist nasty jokes that supported a violent enslavement of African-Americans into Jim Crow for a paycheck.”

This article was originally published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission