Nobody Tore Apart Tony Hinchcliffe and ‘Kill Tony’ Better Than Bill Burr

The Kill Tony fans who are brave enough to speak out on behalf of the embattled host are claiming that it’s okay for Tony Hinchcliffe to trash all the races he hates at a political rally because he’s a roast comedian — Bill Burr preferred to call him a “fucking cunt.”

On Sunday, the right-leaning open mic host bombed so bad during an ill-conceived stand-up set at the Donald Trump rally in Madison Square Garden that it’s already costing Trump votes in swing states as Puerto Rican Americans (or just Americans) didn’t take kindly to one of Trump’s keynote speakers calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” 

However, for as much as voters and pundits have criticized Hinchcliffe’s racist attacks on Puerto Rico, Latino Americans, Black Americans, women and every other demographic besides white men like himself, the group that found Hinchcliffe’s disastrous set the most offensive has been other comedians — not just because Hinchcliffe’s bits were bigoted and fascist, but because they were unfunny, unoriginal garbage.

This is far from the first time that more talented comics than Hinchcliffe have called out the stand-up power broker of Austin, Texas for being a mean-spirited hack. In fact, many members of the comedy community have been waiting a long time for Hinchcliffe’s complete lack of talent and decency become a national issue. But as is often the case about newsworthy assholes, Burr was the first stand-up to properly tear apart the Kill Tony host in front of his home crowd:

To give context to the above clip, the Kill Tony show is structured like a rapid-fire open mic where amateur comedians have one minute to perform their best bit in front of Hinchcliffe and his panel of celebrity judges, usually manosphere figures like Joe Rogan or Shane Gillis. At the end, Hinchcliffe and his friends roast the contestant’s act, their appearance and anything else the panel can find hateable about the up-and-coming comic. Critically, Hinchcliffe broke into the mainstream as a writer and performer on various Comedy Central Roast specials, taking mentorship from Jeff Ross himself, so centering a live show and podcast around mocking people over whom he has power is, objectively, a great business decision. 

But the limitations to the Kill Tony formula are apparent to anyone with an ounce of empathy or critical thinking skills, which means they’re invisible to Hinchcliffe’s following — one minute isn’t enough time for a stand-up to showcase their abilities (everyone knows the industry standard is a tight five), and only an asshole can ever enjoy watching a bunch of whiny millionaires shit on struggling artists for hours on end.

However, for as perfectly as Burr identified the problem with Kill Tony and Hinchcliffe himself, Burr has still sat on the panel multiple times over the past decade. But, hey, it’s better to appear on a “fucking cunt’s” podcast than perform at his campaign rally.