Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe refused to apologize for his controversial joke in which he referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” — but he admitted then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally wasn’t the best place for that particular routine.
Hinchcliffe, whose “garbage” comment sparked widespread outrage in the week leading up to the election, opened up about the poorly-received joke on the latest episode of his podcast “Kill Tony” released Monday.
“I apologize to absolutely nobody,” Hinchcliffe declared to a cheering audience of the live show.
“Not to the Puerto Ricans, not to the whites, not to the Blacks, not to the Palestinians, not to the Jews, and not to my own mother, who I made fun of during the set. Nobody clipped that. No headlines about me making fun of my own mother.”
Hinchcliffe lamented that the true meaning behind his address — namely, the importance of free speech — was ironically lost in the controversy.
“Last night I gave a speech, I don’t know if you heard about this,” Hinchcliffe said in the podcast recorded the day after the election. “It was a speech about free speech, believe it or not… I referenced Puerto Rico, which currently has a landfill problem in which all of their landfills are filled to the brim. I am the only person who knew about this, unfortunately.”
The island of Puerto Rico does in fact have a landfill problem — with 29 of the garbage dumps overflowing or not meeting government standards, according to the St. Kitts and Nevis Observer. The island generates 3.7 million tons of waste annually, according to that report.
Hinchcliffe acknowledged that the time and place of the comments were ill-considered when deciding on which set of jokes to perform.
“Perhaps that venue at that time wasn’t the best f—king place to do this set at. But in any matter, to the mainstream media and to anybody trying to slander me online: That’s what I do, and that’s never going to change,” Hinchcliffe concluded prior to the podcast episode that featured James McCann and Ari Matti.
“I just want to say that I love Puerto Ricans, they’re very smart people — they’re smart, they’re street smart, they’re smart enough to know when they’re being used as political fodder. Right now that is happening,” Hinchcliffe said.
