5 Comedians From ‘Kill Tony’ on Netflix Who Were Funnier Than Tony Hinchcliffe Has Ever Been
Kill Tony just made its Netflix debut, and the crowd went mild.
This morning, Netflix Comedy released the first of three planned specials from Kill Tony, the popular podcast, live show and amateur comedy showcase hosted by controversial comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whom most subscribers will best know from his disastrous set at the Madison Square Garden rally for Donald Trump back in October. As the most prolific fence-sitters in the ongoing culture war, Netflix has long strove to court the vaguely conservative comedy community that considers Joe Rogan’s Austin, Texas club Comedy Mothership to be the Mecca of humor, so it was only fitting that the venue’s most popular weekly live show would hit the home page at a point in time when every Trump fan with a 401k is in desperate need of a good laugh.
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By design, Hinchcliffe is never the funniest comedian on Kill Tony, as the goal of the show is to give up-and-coming stand-ups one minute to prove themselves in front of a celebrity panel that features the most powerful figures of the Manosphere, including Rogan himself, who spent most of today’s special silently twisting his neck back and forth instead of cracking jokes. While the first of three high-budget streaming specials from the most influential podcast in Austin was unfortunately beset by pacing issues and dead air in its Netflix premiere, there were a select few comics who shined during Hinchcliffe’s second most embarrassing Netflix special to date:
Shane Gillis
Despite the likelihood that Hinchcliffe couldn’t afford an actual set from the Manosphere superstar, Gillis, who spent the entire show in character as President Trump, landed a spot on this list for the simple fact that he was the only member of the celebrity panel who made any attempt to fill the long pauses with some panicked riffing whenever apparent behind-the-scenes issues slowed the show down. And, although the spontaneous awkwardness of this Kill Tony special may have forced Gillis toward his safe zone of unconfidently slinging out r-words and gay accusations, he did occasionally strike gold while Rogan and Tom Segura were too busy doing fuck-all to help fill the silences.
“I’ve gathered a bunch of r-----ed guys, we’re in the highest office in the land, we have no business being there, much like this show has no business being on Netflix,” Gillis riffed after Kyle Dunnigan performed a set in the character of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “What a disgrace Netflix has become, they just let any r-----ed guy come on here. Tires comes out soon!”
Adam Ray
The Kill Tony fan-favorite impressionist brought out the big guns for the show’s Netflix debut, impersonating both Joe Biden and Dr. Phil while reading his roast jokes off of crumpled sheets of paper. Ray answered the warm welcome from the Austin crowd with about 15 total minutes of gay jokes made at Hinchcliffe’s expense to accompany some solid roasts of the rest of the regulars.
While addressing Dunnigan, who was then in costume as Elon Musk, Ray joked of the DOGE don, “Elon’s legalizing comedy? He’s the least funny guy in the world. That’d be like if Tony Hinchcliffe legalized eating pussy.” Then, while addressing Gillis’ Trump, Ray remarked, “Donald, you should hire Tony. Give him a position. He’d be the first guy to be in the cabinet and the closet at the same time.”
Serena Thiel
As the very best of the first-timers featured on this very special episode of Kill Tony, Thiel did more than just make an impression. In addition to the praise she received from the show’s host, the Austin local also she earned herself a spot in the lineup for Hinchcliffe’s return to Madison Square Garden this August, when she and the rest of the cast will be blessed with the lowest-possible expectations that anyone has ever had for a MSG show: Don’t bomb so hard that it makes international news.
The best joke in Thiel’s career-moment came at the top of her set, which she began with, “My boyfriend left the house the other day to get a bag of dog food, and he came back really upset because he had found a dead body. And I was like, ‘Baby, it sounds like you just found 180 pounds of free dog food!’”
Jeff Ross
The Roast Master General stopped by Comedy Mothership to add his own gay jokes to the pile of insults hurled at Hinchcliffe, but, following a steady stream of sophomoric attempts to roast the Kill Tony crew from amateur comics, having a professional show us all how it’s really done was a welcome change of pace. Even though he didn’t get so much as a tight five, Ross’ roasts were as memorable as they were efficient.
“Tony, I am so Proud Boy of you,” Ross told the Kill Tony host, then honoring Gillis’ Trump and his “Secretary of Steak Joe Rogan.” Ross told Hinchcliffe of his relocation to Austin, “You’re even starting to talk like a Texan now. You’re always saying to Joe and his buddies, 'Y’all come on my back now, you hear?'” before remarking that the oft-mocked Kill Tony co-host and producer Brian Redban looks “like a sommelier for barbecue sauce.”
Martin Phillips
As one of the most consistent recurring comedians on Kill Tony, Phillips didn’t disappoint when the show desperately needed a banger set from the Washington, D.C.-based stand-up who first appeared on Kill Tony as an amateur back in 2019. Another fan-favorite comic, Phillips used his minute and his dark sense of humor to deliver arguably the most original performance of the night.
“Anybody ever been crucified?” Phillips asked the confused crowd at the top of his set, “People get crucified and they make it their whole personality. It’s like, we get it.” Phillips then ventured into lighter topics than the death of Jesus Christ, observing, “The Volkswagen Beetle was invented by the Nazis, and that proves that they had a fun side.”
