Tenacious D to return after Trump assassination joke controversy
American actor Jack Black has weighed in on the future of his comedy rock duo after cancelling their Australian tour following an ‘evil’ joke made by bandmate Kyle Gass about the Trump assassination attempt.
Jack Black says that the comedy rock duo Tenacious D will return after cancelling their world tour following bandmate Kyle Gass’s controversial joke about the attempted assassination of former President Trump during a July show in Sydney.
“We need to take a break. Everybody needs a break sometime,” Black told the entertainment publication Variety on the red carpet premiere of his new film, Borderlands, on Wednesday. “And we’ll be back.”
In a statement published on social media last month, Black announced that all remaining dates of the Tenacious D Australian tour would be cancelled.
The move came after United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet called for the band to be deported over an “evil” joke Gass made during the band’s show at the ICC Theatre in Sydney on July 14.
At the concert, Black rolled out a birthday cake on stage for Gass, and when asked to make a wish, Gass joked, “Don’t miss Trump next time.” The comment was in reference to the assassination attempt on Trump the day before in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a 20-year-old gunman opened fire on a Trump rally, injuring the former president and killing a bystander.
Following the concert Sen. Babet demanded the duo be “immediately removed from the country” after Gass “wished for the death of the president.”
Kevin Rudd also criticised the explosive remarks by Gass as “sick,” adding, “That someone would joke about violence just makes me physically ill,” Mr Rudd said.
“I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday. I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form,” Black wrote on social media at the time.
“After much reflection, I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour, and all future creative plans are on hold.”
The band were set to play six shows across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Adelaide, Wellington and Auckland in July, however the tour was cancelled after just two shows at Sydney’s ICC Theatre.
Gass issued an apology in a now-deleted post, calling his comment “highly inappropriate, dangerous and a terrible mistake,” and emphasised that he does not “condone violence of any kind” and was “incredibly sorry for my severe lack of judgment.”
On the red carpet Wednesday, Black was asked if he had talked to Gass since the tour’s cancellation. He replied, “Yeah, we’re friends. That hasn’t changed. These things take time sometimes … And we’ll be back when it feels right.”
In Borderlands, director Eli Roth’s long-awaited adaptation of the hit first-person shooter game, Black stars alongside Australian actor Cate Blanchett, who plays the gun-slinging leader of a crew of space outlaws.
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