There hasn’t been a Jon Stewart sighting at Ethics Alarms for a while, but he has a thick dossier here, mostly negative and deservedly so. He has also been an Ethics Hero twice before, but long, long ago before Stewart got full of himself and spawned the metastasizing of almost all cable and network news satire shows into progressive and Democratic propaganda tools.
Nonetheless, Stewart recently bucked his mostly Trump-Deranged audience by defending comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s sometimes racially and ethnically provocative stand-up routine at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally—you know, the one the ironically-named Axis of Unethical Conduct says was modeled on a 1938 Nazi rally.
On yesterday’s “The Daily Show,” Stewart displayed a supercut video of MSNBC and CNN having melt-downs over the comic and host of “Kill Tony” podcast calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” (He also made a watermelon joke.) As the montage of outrage wound down, Stewart mockingly added,“yes, yes of course. Terrible. Boooo!” Then he pretended to stifle his own laughter. “I find that guy very funny,” the progressive comedy icon admitted. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Bringing him to a rally and having him not do roast jokes, that’d be like bringing Beyoncé to a rally and having her…” and he dropped his head. Harris’s campaign used Beyoncé as a hook to draw people to rally in Texas and then she didn’t perform, making many attendees feel like they were the victims of a bait and switch.
Which they were. But that’s the Harris campaign. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly…
So-called “roast comedians,” who follow in the footsteps of insult comics like Don Rickles, Jack E. Leonard and Andrew Dice Clay, specialize in breaking taboos against jokes that mock races, women, gays and ethnic groups as well as celebrities. Stewart, like Bill Maher, chooses the art of comedy over political correctness here, and his support is necessary and important.
Still, I believe it was foolish for Trump’s campaign to feature such a comedian at a high profile rally when Trump was already being called a Nazi and a racist in the last throes of desperation over Harris’s falling support. Was he trolling? Daring his foes to freak out over deliberately inflammatory jokes? Is Trump that confident of victory that he didn’t care? Hinchcliffe’s routine didn’t go over especially well with the crowd. Yes, predictably, the mainstream media lied and suggested in headlines and its descriptions that the comic was just another speaker at the rally, misrepresenting the context and intent of his remarks. The episode was still an instance of Trump making an unforced error and giving the Trump-Deranged another rock to throw at him.
“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.
Indeed.
Ethics Alarms 
Not sure what he and his team were thinking? Having that type of “comedy” this close to the election in the brightest of lights as that MSG rally.
We can only pray that, in the upcoming final days, he doesnt go Great Pumpkin on us and blow the whole damn thing.
Apparently, the comic was testing and tweaking all the jokes at a comedy club in NYC the night before. He had a bunch of Puerto Ricans to test on and they liked it. However, the jokes in a comedy club atmosphere don’t always translate to the political rally atmosphere…
Context:
https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/October_1964_comic_strips?file=19641021.gif
and one that is off topic — but timely
https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/October_1964_comic_strips?file=19641018.jpg
who was the key voting block, Puerto Rico?
Do they get electoral college votes?
No. But Puerto Rican immigrants vote in states with electoral college votes.
My guess is the average Puerto Rican has made up their mind and isn’t swayed by a joke.
Only liberal white women and liberal men but I repeat myself are concerned.
Oh and they’ve also made up their minds.
“Only liberal white women and liberal men but I repeat myself are concerned”
O.k., that was funny.
I’ll leave this here:
https://youtu.be/K3kJ7VPJnmI?si=9UtuxjK4tpvTu6eB
Enjoy!
Does anyone know that the DOJ, EPA and other alphabet agencies have been unable to stop to growing issue of trash on Puerto Rico. The landfills are overflowing and others have been forced to close. His joke was drawing attention to a problem that they don’t want seen. That is why his lame joke is being criticized.
On other fronts:
George Lopez at a Walz rally in Phoenix told these jokes.
Trump wants to build a wall. He better do it in one day because if he leaves any materials around the Mexicans will grab them up.
or
Trump said he would get Mexico to pay for the wall, Mexicans can’t split a check in a restaurant.
Not a word about this was mentioned.
Some info on the topic;
Trash Crisis Leaves Puerto Rico Near ‘the Brink’
Insensitive joke aside, Puerto Rico does have a toxic waste problem that feds are slow to fix | Just The News
i did NOT know that, and if the news media “pouncing” on the comic’s line do, and they are supposed to (it’s their job) then this is a deliberate misrepresentation to inflame the public against Trump. Puerto Ricans here, however, probably do know about the issue, do they might be the group LEAST likely to be offended by the (still badly-timed) joke.
Puerto Rico’s shadow senator endorsed Trump after that incident.
Trump is trying (and largely succeeding) to attract younger voters by going on podcasts favored by them. I suspect this was another such attempt, that didn’t go over well, but not too badly for Trump supporters. I think most people thought ‘Oh, it’s the Kill Tony guy…yeah”.
As for the bait-and-switch, telling everyone they are going to a Beyonce concert and they actually get Willie Nelson is the very definition of a bait-and-switch.
There actually are floating trash piles in the middle of our oceans. The largest is the western Pacific Gyre. These occur where currents meet and spin the trash into a concentrated form.
The prevalence of micro plastics in these areas and around Puerto Rico are a threat to the fisheries, mammalian marine life and humans who consume seafood.
A significant point in that joke was that he said Puerto Rico and not Puerto Ricans. Therefore, claims that he called Puerto Ricans garbage are lies. When hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico it was declared a disaster zone. Did anyone construe that to mean Puerto Ricans were a disaster
And of course, it was President Biden who called voters for Trump actual “garbage” yesterday. Again, the Left does the very thing it accuses the Right of doing.
Did you see that the White House changed the transcript to include an apostrophe to suggest a possessive yet there was nothing that followed “supporters”
Cheats and liars. And that’s a fact, not an opinion.
Just posted on this, and gave you credit.
Oh, come on. George Lopez is of Mexican descent. George Lopez making a joke about Mexicans is WAY different from Tony Hinchcliffe, a WASP name for sure, making any kind of joke about Puerto Rico/Puerto Ricans, Mexico/Mexicans, Haiti/Haitians, Latinos, Black Men, Jews, et al. Punching down — and I say this is punching down only because of the vast poverty in P.R. — is never a good idea. I KNOW that he insulted “everybody.” Yes, he did, except other WASPs.
IF, in fact, IF he was merely raising awareness about the gigantic garbage problem IN Puerto Rico, well… But that’s not his style. He would get punched in school for his insults.
“These people have no sense of humor…” Uh huh. Tell that to the family in Puerto Rico still trying to recover from hurricanes on top of their poverty. You know, the ones Trump threw paper towels to.
Yes, this is Jack’s friend who is NOT a troll. Pray don’t jump on that old chestnut. I may not have the political acumen of you lovely people, but I know a garbage “comedian” when I see/hear one.
1. But don’t you think the massive trash problem in PR justifies giving the joke the benefit of the doubt? If not, why not?
2. Doesn’t the Don Rickles principle apply still? If you mock everybody, then it’s not mean-spirited?
3. Why is a white guy making a joke about Puerto Rico “punching down”? What’s exalted about a white stand-up comic? So a puerto Rican comic could make the same joke, in the same venue, and everyone would say, “That’s hilarious! He’s referencing the trash crisis!” ? Doesn’t that seem a bit strange? A double standard?
4. None of which is to disagree that it was a stupid joke to make. It was. But humor can’t exist if it’s strict liability. Hinchcliffe’s brand especially.
So jokes about countries and/or their associated citizens can only be told (or considered funny) if the country is first-world, crisis-free, inhabited by people without problems, and home to people of the same culture/heritage as the joke-teller.
Do I have all the restrictions listed or did I miss anything?
Our friends at Mystery Science Theater riffed on Puerto Rico years ago. Democrats probably think this is racist as well, so view with caution…
You have to remember, SloJoe was raised by Puerto Ricans!
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-mocked-saying-he-was-raised-puerto-rican-community-1748583