Not Funny
Here is the problem with Tony Hinchcliffe. He wasn’t funny. I have seen people say he is “like Don Rickles” but he isn’t. Don Rickles not only made fun of people, but he made fun of himself. We were in on the joke.
If you met Rickles in a dark alley, he’d hug you and give you a $20. Hinchcliffe would give you a shiv.
Hinchcliffe’s humor is outward and mean. Forget about judging if it’s racist or not. He is above the fray. There is a big difference. Here is Hinchcliffe at the Trump rally. There are several cringe-inducing remarks, but I barely got a chuckle out of any of them when they weren’t cringe-inducing.
Contrast him with Rickles. Here is Rickles at an inauguration party event with Ronald Reagan.
For more context, here is Rickles unleashed in a normal performance. This was in Las Vegas, 2010. Rickles was 83 and the undercurrents of the Woke Society were already starting to move. He had a back problem so he wasn’t like he was when he was younger.
Trump hasn’t made a lot of mistakes in this campaign, but Hinchcliffe at the Madison Square Garden event was one. Even if it doesn’t cost him a vote, it was a mistake.
I watched the routine. Not exactly earth shattering, but when you’re in a hole as big as Kamala is, you take what you can scrounge.
Be honest, my wife was all up in arms about it, but as much as I love her and as smart as she is, she most likely has no idea who Don Rickles is and has not seen any of the old school Roasts. She also has never heard Richard Pryor and or Eddie Murphy or Dave Chapppelle live, I have. I frankly see literally nothing wrong with anything he said. Having lived in NYC for 13 years, having a dated a girl who was half PR and half DR( Which means one side of her hated the other side), I have heard worse and frankly there is always truth in what guys like this say. Sadly, PR is just that, and has been that way for decades. DR is better, but not demonstrably and then you have Cuba. I remember playing against St. John's my last year in college, it was Felipe Lopez's first and he had just been on the cover Sport Illustrated in that curse that was the Jordan Pose. When the game started all of these folks from DR were running all over Alumni Hall in Queens singing songs like it was a soccer game and there were DR flags everywhere. I got in the game in the middle part of the first half and spent some time guarding him and talking to him on the free throw line. Nice as could be, but coming out of the Bronx, where my University was located, that is what literally looked like had taken over the entirety of the gymnasium. Guys with five beepers on their belts, girls with clothing that was six sizes too small and the like. Things are what they are, making fun of it and or trying to point it out in what was not that humorous of a way, is what it is. I can assure you, that may have offended many, but may have garnered Trump more DR votes in NYC and North Jersey.