Comedian Tim Hinchcliffe has caused outrage on both sides of the political spectrum with his joke that Puerto Rico is “a floating island of garbage” at a Donald Trump rally in Madison Square Garden, along with a string of controversial gags that leaned heavily on tired racist stereotypes.
Trump has yet to respond personally to the backlash, but his campaign has issued a statement saying, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign” (as per CBS New York). However, his running mate JD Vance has said, “We have to stop getting so offended” over jokes (as per C-Span), and Hinchcliffe himself has doubled down on his idiocy, telling those offended by it to “change your tampon” in an X post.
Telling jokes is one thing — most topics are fair game within reason when it comes to making people laugh — but being insulting to United States citizens at a rally designed to win the vote of the American people is offensive and, frankly, moronic.
Prolific Trump detractor and Star Trek legend George Takei has taken to X to predict the long-term reactions to Hinchcliffe’s “joke.”
Takei has suggested neither Trump nor Vance will ever apologize for what Hinchcliffe said. He wrote, “You’ll hear everything but an apology from Trump and Vance about their opening act comedian calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at the MAGA hate fest yesterday. And that tells you all you need to know.” X users reacted in their droves.
How did X react to Takei’s post?
Predictably, a bunch of MAGA morons who’d go completely berserk if someone made a joke that offensive about Donald Trump at one of Kamala Harris’ rallies chimed in, telling Takei that Trump or Vance shouldn’t have to apologize for something a comedian said. That they would defend a man who referred to an area that’s home to around 3.3 million Americans as “a floating island of garbage” is laughably hypocritical (but not in the least bit surprising).
Thankfully, some people agreed with Takei. They expressed their views that the joke was in bad taste, from showing their support for Kamala Harris to suggesting the joke wasn’t funny.
Should Trump lose the election on Nov. 5, many will point to Hinchcliffe’s distasteful attempts at humor as potentially a pivotal moment. After all, why would anyone want to vote for a man whose rallies refer to over 3 million of the people he wishes to preside over as living on “a floating island of garbage?”
