Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh dissect Tony Hinchcliffe's controversy over using the slur "chink" during a secret show opener for Peng Dang. While Hinchcliffe claims it was shock humor, the hosts criticize Peng Dang for quote-tweeting the clip to amplify clout rather than seeking private resolution, arguing this weaponized the incident and hurt the Asian community. They defend edgy comedy's experimental nature but condemn hate speech, suggesting the public flagellation of Hinchcliffe is disproportionate compared to past controversies involving Ari Shaffir or Patrice O'Neal. Ultimately, the discussion highlights the tension between artistic freedom and social responsibility in an era of heightened anti-Asian sensitivity. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Choosing Virality Over Connection00:08:11
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We just got off the phone with Tony Hinchcliffe.
A friend of ours, a good friend of ours, comedian friend who is going through it right now.
A clip was released of him being a wild boy.
Like, it's wild.
We can all acknowledge it's wild.
And he's saying some kind of crazy things.
And even with the context, the things still come off as crazy.
It's on TMZ right now.
No, it's not.
TMZ.
Oh, he made it.
It's over.
All that time in Hollywood, he had to move to Austin to get a fucking TMZ.
Come on, Tony.
Yeah, yeah.
It's blown up.
Yeah, it's blown up.
It's going to be a big story.
And obviously, you know, when you have a close connection with somebody, especially a comic, like we got to talk to them before we're going to have a conversation with him about it.
It's what we've always done.
So we just spoke to him.
You guys have probably seen the clip.
You can see the clip somewhere.
We can give a little bit of context to the situation.
Right.
Yeah, where do we begin?
I mean, like, he came up, he said some wild shit.
I guess the comic that was going on before him, which is also the comic that released the clip, Peng Dang, I think it was the guy's name.
They've worked together before.
Yeah, there's been a few times, I guess, where this guy's opened up for Tony.
He's like a club feature in Texas.
Exactly.
So he's up to, and then Tony requested him a second time.
There was like a New Year's gig that he was doing with Ali Makovsky, and he requests him.
So it's not, so they had a working relationship.
They weren't besties or something like that, but they were familiar with each other.
They've worked together.
If your money invites you to come back, you're cool.
You're not friends, but you're cool.
Yeah, cool.
We like being around each other.
We have some level of friendship.
There's some stuff that he had posted, you know, opening for Tony.
It seemed to be a big deal to this guy.
He would tweet out, be like, hey, open for Tony Hinchcliffe tonight.
So excited.
Great shows.
It wasn't like...
I think in his bio, Tony said that like the second line in his bio was Tony Hinchcliffe has a credit.
He's done the Kill Tony show as well.
So they have some sort of working relationship.
So he brings up Tony.
Tony says that this is what's called like the secret show.
Red Band had a show where they don't announce the guests.
So usually Tony's performing for his fans.
This now he gets to perform in front of people that may not know who he is, may know who he is.
Which is more of a challenge, you know.
Definitely more of a challenge.
And I wonder if in that situation, I would make me wilder or less wild.
I'd probably be wilder in front of my fans.
Yeah, I'd be way wilder in front of my fans.
Yeah.
I say whatever the fuck I want in front of my fans, literally anything.
Exactly.
In front of the club, like, you know, jokes that will murder in front of the fans will make people in a club environment uncomfortable.
They're like this.
And you're like, what's going on here?
And this is why you need to do both.
Fans have context.
Fans have context.
They know who you are.
They know what you're coming from.
I know you.
Yeah, exactly.
That's actually a really great point.
Yeah.
Because when I watched it, I laughed because I know Tony.
I know the context of what he was going for.
I thought it was funny.
And I understand why people are like, what the fuck did you laugh at?
And I'm like, I was like, I know the same thing with Ari.
When Ari got canceled for the Kobe tweet.
I laugh.
Because you're doing it.
I know Ari doing it.
I know exactly the tone.
I know what he was going for.
And it was like the shock and the fact that he would go there is what was funny.
And the fact that very few people are willing to go there makes it unique and makes it funny.
And if one person laughs, by default definition, it's funny.
So you can't, like, it's all subjective, obviously.
But if you have one person to laugh, and I laughed at Tony, I laughed at what he said.
Here's the thing.
The reason why it was so weird for me is, and I was just telling this to Tony, is that I'm used to Tony having incredibly clever bits, right?
Like, especially with his roasting, it's super clever.
And he just went on, and it was kind of a rant that I guess within the context of things, like here's this Asian comic that was on before, and he was like making fun of like white people.
This doesn't fucking justify it, but he's doing a lot of white jokes.
So Tony's like, I'm going to carry that energy, and I'm just going to go on the top of it and trash these white people in the crowd for laughing, being self-loathing and laughing.
Yeah, he called them race traders.
Race traders.
It's just funny.
He doesn't really think they're fucking racist.
No, he doesn't really use the word chink in real life.
He's not calling people that.
He literally said he doesn't use the word.
Yeah, I don't use the word.
He goes, I was feeling myself and I was like, I'm going to just go for it.
I regret saying it.
It's not something I use.
I mean, his best, I don't know if Red Band's his best friend, but like his best friend's Krill Seesh.
Yeah, of course.
So he's probably not dropping that fucking word all the time.
Tony's like, Tony's a sweetheart of a guy.
And he's not, this does not come from a hateful place.
And I believe that the opener knows that because he does have the context.
He knows who Tony is.
He knows the brand of comedy that Tony does.
Yes.
So he has all that context.
So it's like, dude, if you're offended by something that somebody said, and I, by the way, even if in the moment he was like, you know, dude, fuck this.
You know, he's feeling very inspired.
It's Asian Heritage Month.
There's a lot going on in the media right now.
I'm not discounting the fact that he probably legitimately has feels a certain way.
But you would think that you would just after the show be like, Tony, come talk to me for a minute.
Like, that actually really bothered me.
It hurt my feelings.
That's a fucking dude.
He fucked up.
Like, go, go, go, go.
No, I don't.
Listen, I don't know Tony as well as y'all.
I know Tony a little bit.
I assumed when I watched the clip, just knowing Tony's clever and funny, the joke has to be this is so over-the-top racist that it has to be a joke.
That's the joke.
Yes.
If that hurt his feelings, Peng.
Cool.
I understand that.
That word could hurt a lot of people's feelings.
My best friend is Chinese.
It'll probably hurt his feelings.
You talk to him man to man, be like, yo, man, what the fuck is that?
But to have that quote tweet and then like passive aggressively be like, happy AAPI month, exclamation point.
Like, you're clout chasing.
Yep.
You are trying to use your victim as currency, and that shit I do not like.
He chose to go viral.
He chose to go viral.
He chose to go viral over connection with that person.
And he wanted that.
And because at the end of the day, like, what does this do?
Like, is Tony Hinchcliffe the one that is stopping Asian progress in America?
You know what I mean?
Like, I understand if President Biden is saying something like this and you capture on footage, you're like, okay, maybe we should showcase this to the world.
But I don't know if Tony is the one that's only done Asian.
Let me try to see his point of view.
Maybe he thinks this type of shit is just acceptable and funny in the world, and I don't like that.
Yeah.
Now, you also know Tony.
You've opened for Tony.
That's your, you guys are on some level cool.
Yeah.
So if he's not some random motherfucker, you can talk to him and be like, bruh, that's a moment for you to teach and actually make an impact.
You're like, yo, man, I don't, if he's like, I never use that word and be like, yeah, cool.
Don't ever use that word.
You know what I mean?
That's all you got to do.
You would talk to him man to man very easily.
You can also, you can also say that.
Tony's not an intimidating guy.
Tony's not a guy I'm scared to talk to.
You can confront him.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
You can say, hey, Tony.
And Tony seems reasonable to be like, yeah, my bad.
Yeah.
And or maybe he has the debate.
Maybe he goes, well, this is, you know, maybe he, you know, says, well, this is why I feel like I can use certain words.
But at the very least, you have the conversation with another dude.
I remember one time I brought up Mateo Lane.
Mateo Lane's a brilliant, brilliant comic in New York.
You know, I love Mateo.
Great body.
You fucking rip.
But I'll be looking at my Instagram.
I'm telling you.
I'm in public with my Instagram.
Like, I'll be in on a bench and sharing a bench with a few other people.
I'm at a fucking clothing store with my girl.
It's just me and the other two boyfriends that are waiting for their girls to get changed.
And I bring out the Instagram, all these guys on Instagram, and I'm scrolling through, and it comes up.
The first fucking picture is Mateo topless in a speedo.
And I got these other two guys looking over at my phone, and they're not even judging me.
They're just going, God.
That man is.
Motherfucker is stabbed.
That man is perfect.
He really is.
I mean, not for nothing.
And he's also a sweetheart of a guy.
The best.
Hilarious comedian, really talented artist.
He's got it all.
He's so talented.
Have that good a body to be able to draw.
Oh, God, he's gay.
Literally, fuck all our God.
He's gay.
But I remember one time at the stand years ago, I brought him up.
He's so hot.
I'm about to say some racial slurs on this bitch or homophobic ones or something.
The Apology That Might Work00:07:15
But I brought him on stage or maybe when he got offstage, whatever it was, I was hosting a show and I brought him up and I said, I said ignorant shit.
No, no, I didn't say the F-word.
Yeah, yeah.
I made a joke about something about him having AIDS.
It was dumb.
It was a bad joke.
It wasn't good.
It wasn't executed well.
Yeah.
But I went for it.
You're trying to be shocking.
I was trying to be shocking in the moment, and it was like, it didn't really get a laugh.
And it was, it was when I was bringing him up because I remember just feeling so bad throughout his whole set being like, fuck, dude, like, I don't want like, because I really like Mateo and I have a lot of respect for him.
You know what I'm saying?
And I just missed the mark.
You know, that's what happened.
Yeah.
I was going for something shocking.
I missed the mark.
And when he came off stage, I was like, dude, I just wanted to apologize because I felt like I shouldn't have said that.
That wasn't the right way to bring you up or present you as a comedian.
It was the moment.
And he was like, dude, I didn't think anything of it.
He didn't even, it didn't even register for him.
Yeah.
But that's sort of the way we act.
Like in the workplace, as men, as you know, and even just men, as adults, if you have an issue with something that somebody says or does, you can approach them and you can say that, you know, and it was mature of you to apologize.
Of course, yeah.
And it was dope of him to take it that way, but he could also take it another way and you'd be understanding of that.
You're like, if he was offended, I thought he would be offended because it wasn't funny.
It didn't get a laugh.
It was, it was just low-hanging fruit.
It was just some dumb.
You're going for it.
So here's the thing with the Tony situation, which is very difficult, right?
Because like comedians, we've set this precedent.
Like, we're not going to apologize for everything because for anything, because we feel a little bit under attack with our material and if we want to stay like crazier jokes.
So we're like, I'm not going to apologize.
Now, I don't subscribe to that in its totality.
Like, if you say something that you're sorry for.
That you're sorry for, you could say sorry.
Like, you said this beautifully.
You're like, yo, you apologize to him.
Like, if you feel sorry for hurting his feelings, apologize to him for that.
And you could have done that.
You did that literally right when you got off stage.
So it's not like we have this like hard and fast line.
We don't apologize for anything.
That might not have been the actual joke.
That's a crazy person.
Like, I will not apologize.
Like, you are a lunatic.
You're a lunatic.
You're a sociopath.
Now, if it's a joke that we've crafted for six months and we like where the joke is and you're offended, but we don't feel sorry for the joke, you don't have to apologize.
If it's something you're just whipping up in the moment, you're like, this might work, this might not work.
This is a 50-50 idea.
And then it doesn't fucking work.
It doesn't go over.
Now you're on TMZ.
You're all over the place.
You can apologize for the part of it that you don't like, especially saying the word that you said to me on a phone.
You just do not say.
You don't know why you said in a moment.
I just don't like the idea of apologizing to the public.
So apologize to Peng, right?
Call him up.
And apparently he did call him up and he won't answer his calls, which is such a like, it's just like, dude, I don't know.
Like, if you're offended, what the fuck does the public need an apology?
It's not a public issue.
You know, this is.
Well, now it's become a public issue.
And yeah, if you want to apologize to the public, you can.
Sure.
I'm saying that's just up to you.
The problem with that, and this is, and I see the picture of Patrice O'Neal right there.
And it's almost become a hack point at this point, but it's really true.
Like he made this incredible point when he was defending Don Imus, right?
Yeah.
Where he said, every joke comes from the same place, good or bad, right?
We don't know it's going to be good.
There's an opportunity to make something funny.
We have to experiment.
Comedians, we go into a comedy club environment sometimes completely blind.
We have a brand new bit.
We don't know if it's going to work.
And we use the audience as a gauge to see if it's good or bad.
And it's supposed to just exist in that moment.
And then we figure it out.
It takes six months to figure out if it's really good and you get it to be perfect.
And it's this sort of like, you know, this song and dance that goes back and forth between the audience.
If you don't give people the opportunity to make those mistakes, you're going to get people taking less chances.
You're going to, you're whittling down the quality of comedy.
I 100% agree.
100% agree.
I also think that that's mutually exclusive from apologizing for something that you didn't mean to do or went wrong.
Right.
So it's like, but apologizing for a joke in general when a joke can go wrong.
Am I apologizing for a joke going wrong?
What if it went right?
What if everyone laughed?
What if the whole thing, what if Peng thought it was great?
Hold on, let's say, let's say the whole it kills, the whole audience laughs, and Peng is dying laughing on the side of the stage.
Because if he would have called me a spic on that show, yeah, in the same exact tone, it was just spic.
It was me, which could have easily happened, which has happened with like other shows.
What's your name?
Call me a spic on Rose Battle on Comedy Central.
You don't got to be a snitch, bro.
It was a Peng Dango.
But if I freaked out and I took the moment and I tweeted it out and said, oh my God, she called me a spic and it had a viral moment.
I could have easily created some, but no, I laughed.
I slapped my knee.
It was fucking funny.
So obviously, there's some like societal issues that are going on now that heighten the severity of this, right?
Like, if Stop Asian Hate wasn't a hashtag, if there weren't like Asian ladies getting beating the shit out of the street on fucking bus stops, then I don't think this would be as sensitive.
But because it is, it is the perfect viral moment.
And I'm sure that the comedian Pang, okay, in best case scenario, is like really affected and like bothered and triggered by seeing Asian people getting beat up all the time.
Yeah.
And he's probably really sensitive to any Asian racism right now, as I'm sure a lot of Asians are.
100%.
And that's the best case scenario of him.
Worst case scenario of him is he's going, oh, because this is so popping, I could get some clout off of this.
Probably a little bit of both.
It might be in the middle.
Yeah.
But I'll give him best case.
I'll also give him worst case.
The point is: do you think that do you, Peng Dang, after knowing Tony and after working with him truly think that he went up there and believed everything that he said?
No.
No.
And you can think, hey, these jokes, it's weird that you can.
I've always thought before this, I was like, it's weird.
You could just shit on Asian people as much as you want to.
Nobody ever gets offended.
Yeah.
I remember thinking that like 10 years ago, whatever.
If you feel that and that's something that bothers you, cool.
That affected you.
Real quick, all you got to do is talk to Tony.
That's the first thing you got to do.
Even if you want to put the shit out, you talk to Tony and be like, hey, man, I think this could be a teachable moment.
Would you be a part of this?
Whatever.
And then you can say you regret it.
Some shit.
Like, there is an opportunity to do it completely differently.
He chose to chase the clout.
Yeah, I agree.
Yo, and I think the reason people are so comfortable being racist against Asians is because Asian people are so fucking dope at everything they do.
They make more money than everybody.
They're all doctors and fucking go to college.
You can make fun of successful people.
Yeah, you're not really punching down.
You're not, it's not punching down.
So the idea of like, so now we like, I don't know.
I never looked at it as a Puerto Rican, I never looked at Asians as being below me.
I was always like, yo, those are the smart kids.
That kid's going to go to college.
That kid's going to do well in a cess.
Like that was always my perspective on Asian kids.
Yeah, they were a little bit, you know.
It's a little easier.
Like, if one of my, if one of my female friends, like white or Puerto Rican chicks, started dating an Asian guy, we'd probably make fun of her for it, to be honest with you.
There's a weird thing, and I don't, there's something called the model minority myth, which has been explained to me because it's put upon Indians, but I don't give a fuck.
Something like that puts pressure on us that you think we're all supposed to be successful.
That's not fair.
That just because I'm Indian or Asian, I'm supposed to be so smart and successful, whatever.
But then you do the same thing that white people call white privilege.
So I'm not exactly sure.
I guess societally it's different, but people just pick and choose their little crazy theories.
Like, yeah, I mean, yeah, I can look for the microaggressions in anything.
If I wanted to stare at your studio, I'd be like, oh, this is racist against Latinos.
Like, what are we even doing here?
Like, what's going on?
Like, it's just, it's people choose their battles.
I just don't, I don't live in a world.
Here's the thing: oh, me and you, all three of us, we chose being comedians as sort of our identity over our racial background, ethnicity, even our gender, our sexuality.
I think being a comedian was sort of always, for me, anyway, I can't, I'm speaking for everybody, but for me, anyway, it was always sort of the number one thing.
Comedy Identity vs Background00:14:43
I romanticized.
I started comedy 15 years ago.
It was such a big deal to be a comedian.
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Now let's get back to this shit.
So I have this thing where like I have like this mutual respect for every comedian automatically and society sort of splintered now and everyone sort of is prioritizing all of these other things, politics, Social issues over this thing that like we all sort of like we'd show up at an open mic 15 years ago and you'd have, like you know, there'd be like a 50 year old lawyer and some.
You know, I stopped doing that bro, what I stopped the?
Just because you're a comedian and I respect you shit, right.
Well, you have to now.
Now, because it's because it's splintered.
Like there's some so many comedians that are doing stuff that I do not respect and I love the art so much that I'm not gonna watch you bastardize the art.
I'm like a terrorist comedian you know what I mean.
Like I'm like the I'm ISIS comedy, like I'm the most extreme version of it.
So when I see it being done in a way that I feel like is disrespectful to the art, I'm like you're the enemy too.
So, but it almost goes back to that theory of like you know they're still trying right and maybe they haven't figured it out yet, but it's like we're all we all sort of what are you trying to do, man?
That's what i'm trying to.
Are you just trying to get like?
Like I see a lot of comics that they should just be pastors, bro.
Like that, if religion was more popular.
That's what they would do.
They want to stand in front of people and they want them all to agree with them and then tell them they're the best and that's the what they want.
But there's no role for them in a society.
That's kind of shunning religion.
Now, if there was, then 100 would do it they.
They could go into like self-help gurus and this kind of stuff and those all of a sudden are becoming very popular because people want motherfuckers to just say, hey, you're great.
You know, I like the comics that are going up there and confusing you with the premise.
I like somebody saying some wild and then trying to justify, prove it comedically, yeah yeah, like that.
Or you're gonna have some really.
I mean like painfully vulnerable story, like make me feel some I don't want to feel and then make me laugh afterwards about it and maybe no journey is fun if it's all happy and comfortable.
Isn't that a fun movie?
There's no movie where all good is happening all the time.
You're like yo, if that was worth my time.
No, i'm not.
I'm not saying that.
That's what Tony was trying to do right, but I do know Tony and I know him to be a good guy, I know him to be a kind guy and I know his material and he takes care of other comedians very well.
We're talking about, like kill Tony, and that whole platform has been something that's put on a lot of comedian.
Yeah, you know, and Tony, now's the time to come out as gay.
Now is it if there's ever been a better time.
You have to do it right now, Immediately, you come out as gay.
Okay, smart idea.
I think it's got to happen.
It might have to be more.
It might have to come out as trance.
I remember last time we saw him, he had a girl that he was like pretty serious about.
Yeah.
We finna find out if she's the one.
If she dances into this, that's the one.
That's the real one.
That's the one.
But you guys understand what I'm saying.
It's like, almost like religion, comedy.
Yeah, they're all these parallels with religion, but there has been like splinters.
And you have these different crowds and these different shows, and there's different material you really just can't do.
And the jokes that you know fucking kill just don't work there because these are people that are too uncomfortable to laugh at things that they feel.
They want to laugh at things that they believe the world should be.
And I can't subscribe to that type of comedy.
I'm fine.
You could do it.
Yeah.
That's great.
But I'm not going to just automatically give you the same grace as I give a traditional comedian.
That's right.
Maybe I'm calling them traditional, but or the comedian that's of the same like ilk as me.
Yeah.
And I agree with you completely.
The people that I love, those are the ones that I love.
And I say this all the time.
We have very similar views on comedy.
Oh, of course.
I mean, that's why we're in this room right now.
Of course.
And here's the thing.
People often assume that because we say that we only like a savage like Patrice.
You know what I mean?
But no, I could watch comics.
Dude, Ryan Hamilton is so fucking funny.
Yeah.
He's part of the game.
Dibergati is my son's godfather.
Yeah, he's like, you know, like, it does got to be a dirty, filthy, edgy.
It's not about that.
Is this you?
Dude, is it?
Last week, we were talking about how funny Kevin James's special was from like the late 90s.
It's a clean special.
So funny.
You don't have to be a piece of shit, but our favorites are the guys that are going to make you a little uncomfortable because that's a fake oil.
Exactly.
You're not a snake oil salesman.
There's some fucking snake oils.
And they know if they go up there and they're just saying whatever that crowd feels, that they're going to get their claps.
And that's all they want.
They don't care about the fucking art.
And maybe I sound like some old wash motherfucker going, oh, biger back in the day.
This is what comedy was, but I don't care.
That's what I love.
Well, the shit that I like, you know, I talk about a lot of dark shit in my act.
And it's like, you got a lot of dark shit to talk about.
Well, that's the thing.
Like, you know, you talk about comedy being therapeutic.
It's like to try to like, you know, talk about my mother being a drug addict or my father being murdered.
And it's like, these are things that, like, not only do I have to like think about it and talk about it, which is therapeutic in general.
Just going to therapy, think about it, talk about these things.
But now I have to try to find a positive, funny spin on these really fucked up things today.
And that in itself, it's such a unique, it's such a unique way to look at personal trauma.
So I have a hard time when people don't come to it with balls and don't come to it with a little bit of grit.
I have a hard time really getting into their shit.
But there's exceptions, like you said.
We all know, like, I don't know.
There's the thing.
Maybe it seems like we're capping for Tony because that's our homie and we are biased.
That's our homie.
I know Tony's not a fucking two things.
I know Tony's not racist.
You need intent.
You need context, right?
His intention wasn't to be racist.
His intention was to be funny.
The context was he was at a comedy show roasting the guy that was before him.
He wasn't in a fucking parking lot screaming that word at somebody that was.
He's not my homie.
He's my acquaintance, but I know him well enough to know this wasn't real.
And I would think Peng would know the same.
Like you have about the same amount of interaction with him as me.
And if that affected you, talk to him.
That's my point.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Even if there's, even if you don't, and even if you're absolutely furious about it, and maybe you're a little scared to talk to that person, you know, maybe Peng is scared to talk to that person.
He's like, I don't know, maybe this guy's not going to let me go up on shows anymore, this, that, the other.
Well, now he's not.
Now it's never going to happen, but he's not going to have shows to do in the first place.
You were about to say something?
No, no, no.
I was just listening.
Oh.
Because I have a different point of view, but I'm thinking about it.
If somebody came up and introduced me, oh, that nigga that was just on stage or whatever the case is.
I wouldn't be able to be that understanding.
And especially the tweet said, oh, look at how I was brought up last week.
So Tony had a week to contact them.
I think he now is contacting them because it went viral.
Devil's advocate.
I don't know if Tony knew that I was even upset until the video went out.
But you saw how after you said the age joke about Mateo, you spoke to him immediately right after the show.
It was different.
It was a different thing because to be honest with you, I think like what it's possible.
Can I say something real quick?
Isn't it possible Lewis handled it better than Tony?
Yeah, that's also true.
Tony didn't handle it well, but I don't think this public flagellation, whatever the word is, was necessary.
That's what I think.
Tony didn't handle it well.
And honestly, nothing.
Sorry to interrupt, but if you want to go, if you approach Tony and you try to have that conversation and he's like, fuck you, I meant everything that I said.
Bombs away, bro.
Bombs away.
But if there's no like basic human interaction and connection, like there's no, hey, man, can I just talk to you about it?
Shit made me feel uncomfortable, bro.
Like, bare minimum.
I don't know.
I'm a different type of motherfucker.
Like, I will talk to you about things.
And I don't, I don't know.
I will talk to you.
Even comics, I'll talk to you.
Like, this happened back home.
Like, if I hear a comic, I don't care how popular they are or how successful they are.
Like, if they're doing things that I think are like disrespectful to other comics, whatever, and I'm in their face and I've spoken about this, I'm not going to act like I haven't.
I'm not going to sit at a fucking table with you and act like I haven't said, yo, it was corny what you did.
Right.
I'm not going to check you on some like, yo, let's go outside and fight.
That might be a Louis Gomez approach.
But I'll just be like, yo, why were you, why were you, why were you doing that?
Like, explain it to me because it doesn't make sense to me.
And y'all are better about that than most people.
Most people are not as comfortable as conflict as you guys.
Even me, not as comfortable.
But that is such an other extreme in a way that you wouldn't handle it.
I don't think you, Alex, would see somebody say that shit and then be then not say anything and then put it on Twitter.
Oh, that's true.
I would have pushed myself.
You would have checked the motherfucker.
Like, but maybe you're different than him, but I know you.
You would have went after it.
And it might have been a little more aggressive, but it might be like, yo, what the fuck was that about, dude?
That was corny.
And that's true.
And that's a thing.
So we don't know what happened between that week and now.
And look, we haven't caught you.
I only know Tony's side, where he said he didn't get reached out to at all and the guy didn't say anything.
Maybe the guy tried.
Maybe there's DMs that Tony didn't see.
I would think the way he tweeted that, and I could be wrong, but the way he tweeted that lets me know if he had interactions with Tony, he would have included that in his, hey, let me burn down Tony's career tweet.
I tried to reach out to Tony multiple times.
He wouldn't even talk to me.
The way he tweeted it, he tweeted it and then walked away.
No replies, no nothing.
Like he was like, here you go.
I'll be my job.
Yeah, I'll be over here.
And in no way are we justifying what Tony said.
And Tony doesn't even agree with what he said.
He's like, I was going for it.
It was stupid.
I would, I don't use that word.
But I am justifying his attempt to go for whatever he's going to do.
Exactly.
You can go, you can attempt, but you can fail and you can acknowledge failure.
And that's okay.
It doesn't make him a sellout as a comic if he wants to go, yo, I failed in my attempt to make some humor out of this situation.
Like, I would never judge him for doing that shit at all.
So that's the tricky situation we're in.
We don't ever want to stop trying to make jokes.
We know that we're going to fail probably at best eight out of 10 times when we're trying a new joke.
Maybe nine out of ten times, we're going to probably have that fail rate.
Sometimes the failures are going to be absolutely massive.
So he's aware of that.
I wish they would have been able to talk.
It just sucks that it's gotten this big because, dude, he got dropped by his agent.
Like, I'm not trying to have like a, what is it called?
The play the violin.
You know what I mean?
He did say something fucked up and it, and it really obviously maybe hurt him.
And other people get to hear it and they feel hurt as well.
But nobody would have heard it.
If Peng didn't share it with the world, nobody would have been hurt by it.
It would have been a bunch of people in a club that would have heard it.
Nobody was really hurt by it.
If Peng was hurt by it, it could have been a street hurt Asians.
This is, yeah, exactly.
Like 50 people heard it in the club and maybe those people were hurt by it, right?
Now millions of people, TMZ is playing.
Now, how many more Asians feel attacked because they heard a guy?
What do you Mark is wobbling his head?
What?
I don't know.
I mean, like, I get your point, but like, could you say the same about like videos of Asian people getting beat up?
Like, if you put out those videos, are those reinforcing like negative feelings that Asian people feel about the intent of the context is physically harming an Asian person versus telling a joke, 100%.
But people refuse to acknowledge the context.
What I would also say to that is, how often do we criticize the media for only portraying black people in these negative, stereotypical ways?
Like, oh, every time a black person's robbing somebody, you put it on the news, and then now all of a sudden there's this negative perception about black people.
So we can't have it both ways.
We can't have it.
Oh, showcasing these acts all the time is a detriment to this one group of people.
And then when you showcase this acts, it's not.
So we have to figure out some sort of balance.
And I guess what you were trying to say is the overall takeaway is more people are going to feel hated when this goes viral than the 50 people in that room when it was supposed to be in the context of a joke that failed.
It failed.
We're not justifying what's said.
If we heard anybody say it outside of comedy, we'd be like, yo, what the fuck is wrong?
You laugh at me.
If I heard anything you said outside of a comedy club stage, you'd be like, all right, this guy's actually trying to start a hate cult.
So we need to stop him right now.
But it's the, you know, you have to have that context.
And it's, it's a shame.
And that's why it with Pang, and I don't know Pang at all, and maybe he's a great dude, but I just, as a comedian, I'm going like, dude, I don't really respect that.
Like, you, you know, what he's doing.
You know, he's going for a joke.
You know, he's failing.
We've all failed at telling jokes, you know, and now you're going to try to hurt somebody.
Not only Troy, you did hurt somebody.
You hurt this guy's career.
Maybe he hit your feelings.
Maybe, maybe your feelings were a little bit hurt in that moment, right?
And that could have been alleviated.
And maybe you could have taught Tony a lesson, but now you've legitimately hurt this guy's career, his family, you know, his productivity for the future.
And I just don't, I don't, I don't think the punishment fits the crime.
That's what I mean.
And it's not like you're going to get anything out of this.
It's not like people are going to go, I need a book paying at the funny bone.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If anything, people are going to go, yeah, that guy might start some shit.
Yeah, exactly.
I take personal responsibility for all this because now comics are posting clips.
But you know, if I never did, if I never told him to do this shit, then he would have never videotaped this set.
And Tony could hate Asians in peace.
All jokes aside, I think this is even different than the Ari thing, where Ari put the clip out himself.
And so you put that out of smoke.
If Tony put this clip out, I'm not standing by it.
My only issue is the way this kid handled it.
That's my issue with this kid.
I'm not standing by what Tony said.
Ari, by the way, we had Ari on Legion of Skanks, and we did a lie detector test.
We had a really high-quality lie detector test, the same one police department choose.
And we asked him if he regretted the Kobe tweet, and he said no.
And he was telling the truth.
Wow.
Really?
Wild.
He's a savage.
Yeah.
He sent me something absolutely hilarious.
Oh, yeah.
We can't talk about it.
We can't talk about it.
He can't talk.
He's like, I would have tweeted this if everyone was.
That's what he said.
Dude, I FaceTimed it.
That's what it's.
I literally FaceTimed him at an airport, like borderline crying, laughing at this video.
He's a wild fucking boy.
Yeah.
But he's willing to live that life.
That's another thing.
Like he's going.
I'm fine being on the outskirts.
I'm fine not being in the mainstream thing.
I have my fans that support what I do and it's a specific thing that I do.
And we all know him personally.
So we can go, oh, that's that's just he's a wild boy is what he did.
And then sometimes your wild boy shit goes mainstream and mainstream people have no context of what the fuck you do.
Lost Context As A Host00:05:30
No.
And that's this is bad news.
They were like, they're like, make a Legion of Skanks TikTok.
I'm like, are you out of your fucking mind?
We can't even be on YouTube.
Are you crazy?
I'm putting out of context clips on TikTok for the shit that we saw.
It's always funny where they come after you and they just go to some crazy thing.
There's like a baby with a fucking like a dildo, like a what is it?
What are they called?
Those baby mannequins?
What are they called?
Oh, yeah.
Doll.
Yeah, or doll.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Baby mannequins.
What are they called?
You know, I'm not getting anything from you.
I just had a question.
So I'm not a comic.
I don't know how this works, but if he failed, like you guys said, like you don't agree with what he said.
Yeah.
Should he have gotten in front of it and just be like, yo, on stage, I was going for it and I said something that I regret.
I don't think that he, I don't think that he thought this was this was in and out.
We do so many shows, we say so many dumb things.
He does a lot of improv.
I don't think that this registered as a problem for him.
I think in his mind, he just had a moment where he roasted this guy.
The audience was laughing.
It wasn't bombing.
It wasn't like the audience was booing and then he got in trouble.
It wasn't the Kramer moment.
They're comparing it to the Kramer moment.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, years ago at the laugh factory.
Not at all.
That's what was happening.
It was still Red Band's audience.
They were still Tony Hinchcliffe fans.
Let's get real.
Yeah.
They were laughing.
If you listen to the actual clip, you do hear people laughing.
There was some uncomfortable laughter, but there were people actually laughing.
Some people got it.
Some people didn't.
I don't think Tony was like, oh, I fucked up, dude.
In my moment, I felt bad because I made a bad joke.
I looked at my friend, I brought him up.
And as a host, to be honest with you, as a host of a show, this is something that's lost in context as well.
It's not my job to make a joke on this guy.
It's my job to present him to do well.
If I'm being paid to host the show, it's my job to make everyone, put everyone in a good mood up front, be everyone's buddy, and then present everyone and put everyone in a position where they can do as well as possible.
It's not my job to fucking roast this guy that's coming up next.
So I just, it was my personal standard and I just kind of felt bad.
He was my friend who I just didn't, I thought it was a little disrespectful the way that I did it.
I don't think Tony felt that was disrespectful.
I don't think Tony was disrespecting Pang.
I think Tony was trying to shock the crowd and be funny.
And he said the most fucked up thing that came to mind in that moment.
And it was a failure in recognizing that this guy's feelings might have been hurt in the process.
Yeah, I, it wasn't a failure in the bit.
Like the bit was way funnier than the bit.
If you think that's like Tony's funny, no, Tony's way funnier.
Tony's fucking hilarious.
So yeah, it sucks.
But I also understand, Al, where you're coming from.
What you can only put yourself in that person's shoes and you would be tight if somebody did that to you.
Absolutely.
And Akash, you might be tight too.
I bet motherfuckers have said stuff about you after.
Oh, yeah.
And if I have a problem with them, I will say it to them.
Or even if I'm a bitch and I talk shit about them behind their back, I'm not putting it online.
Like the bitch move to me, the extreme bitch move is I talk shit about that person behind their back.
It's so much further beyond comprehension, even to say, like, I'm not going to approach you at all.
Yeah.
And I'm going to put it online.
And if Tony felt embarrassed by that bit, which I probably would, I would just kind of hold up and be like, ah, dude, thank God that wasn't like a big show and nobody saw it.
It was a secret show.
I don't even want to fucking think about that because that was like I was wiling.
And then you just kind of put it away and hope nobody saw it.
Like you fucking trip and fall in public and you look around, make sure nobody saw it.
It's kind of like that.
Like, all right, well, I tripped and fell on this bit.
I hope nobody saw it.
And then this guy is filming it.
And then why is he filming my set, first of all?
Are you filming yourself bringing me up, motherfucker?
Like, no.
Maybe he just pressed play on that.
And then he did a set before and brought him up or something.
Yeah, like he probably passed the mic or something.
Yeah, past the mic.
It was probably past the mic.
Or maybe he was the host.
And then, or past the mic, and then it was just like it was recording.
And then as he went back to the middle, if he was first, here's what makes sense.
If he was the host and he recorded his opening, and then because you're looking for little clips, you know, and then bring Tony up, you wouldn't have stopped it.
Fair.
Yeah, look, it was.
That's my point.
Tony probably doesn't want to get in front of it because he's like, dude, thank God that was a small show.
Nobody saw it.
Holy fuck.
That's what I would probably do.
Yeah.
Or he didn't even think about it.
I don't think he thought about it.
If you don't kill Tony, you know that brand.
He was just on Legion of Skanks last week.
There are certain, there's a brand of comedy out there.
You don't see it in the mainstream, but guys like Legion of Skanks, guys like Ari, guys like Tony, we say fucked up shit for the sake of saying fucked up shit.
We try to make fucked up jokes and we try to play within that world.
That's the brand of kingdom that I really like.
I don't want you to brand yourself as like as that because Tony would go, no, I'm way funnier than that.
Yes.
And you guys are way funnier than that.
This is just a failure at doing something that's risky.
Which happens all the time.
Exactly.
These things happen all the time.
But we're not going, yo, this is comedy.
Because all of a sudden, sometimes like when a joke goes south, right?
And then it goes viral because people are like, how could you say this shit?
We got it.
We got to step up and go, hey, man, this is just a bad version of what we do.
There's great versions of what we do, and you happen to love it because Patrice O'Neill is the fucking man.
Yeah.
Okay.
And there are tons of these jokes that people think are absolutely hilarious.
And then they're fucking bombs.
You saw a bomb.
The bomb went viral.
There's a lot of other societal shit that goes into this stew.
And it's really fucked up.
You know what I mean?
If you're upset at that, you're somebody who's Asian, and you even if you know the context, you're still upset.
Okay, you're allowed to be upset.
Nobody ever said you're not allowed to have emotions.
Like, that's not what comedians said.
I would say, don't buy a ticket to see Tori Henchcliffe.
Yeah, don't do it.
That's as far as it should go.
Yeah, so he can work on that bit.
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