“It’s Just a Joke”: Deflection, Denial, Disingenuousness, and the Right’s Culture of Hate, Essay, Tariq Khan

“Can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding”

-They Might Be Giants, “Your Racist Friend”[1]

The Trump/Vance 2024 campaign’s rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden was a crass celebration of old-fashioned U.S.-American racism. The first speaker that the Trump/Vance team chose to put in the lineup to set the tone for the event was Tony Hinchcliffe: a comedian who has built a career off racist, misogynistic, and anti-trans “jokes” that appeal to a right-wing male audience. It is likely that the campaign invited Hinchcliffe not despite, but because of his cruel, vulgar, and arrogant style of punching down. Indeed, that is the main thing Hinchcliffe is known for. In 2021 his talent agency WME dropped him after he used a racial slur to demean the Asian American comedian Peng Dang, resulting in the cancelation of some of Hinchcliffe’s gigs.[2] Among the young men who make up the foot soldiers of the MAGA movement, Hinchcliffe is likely most admired for his Kill Tony podcast, on which he has had major right-wing media stars such as Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson on as honored guests while desperate young comedians tell tasteless jokes in the hopes of gaining Hinchcliffe’s approval.

On stage at the Madison Square Garden event, Hinchcliffe flattered the crowd: “Republicans are the party with a good sense of humor!”[3] Hinchcliffe’s MAGA rally set was a stream of racist one liners after another. He called Puerto Rico “a floating Island of garbage.” He mocked migrants. “These Latinos, they love making babies… There’s no pulling out.” He pointed to a Black member of the audience and said, “That’s one of my buddies… We carved watermelons together.” He continued this for twelve minutes while praising Trump for being “cool” and praising Elon Musk for being “the world’s richest, smartest man.” Many people, including Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Tim Walz expressed objections to Hinchcliffe’s racist jokes. In the face of public backlash, Trump and Vance took the coward’s path of denying any knowledge of the comedian they invited to open their rally, but argued that the real issue is not racist rhetoric, but rather people getting “offended” by racist rhetoric.[4] Hinchcliffe took to his account on the now far-right wing social media app X to complain about people who criticized his act. “These people have no sense of humor… [they] analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist.”[5] Of course with humor, context is everything, so what was the context for Hinchcliffe’s jokes?

The context for Hinchcliffe’s set was a rally that was so full of hatred of the vilified “other” that historically-conscious observers have compared it to 1939, when the pro-Nazi German American Bund held a nazi rally in Madison Square Garden.[6] Despite the fact that Hinchcliffe got the most backlash – mainly for his “floating pile of garbage” line – his remarks were just the warmup to speakers who had far worse things to say. The context for Hinchcliffe’s “jokes” was a lineup of far-right personalities spewing transphobia, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and calls for increased authoritarianism. Trump’s racist immigration advisor Stephen Miller – the architect of the cruel and abusive “family separation/kids in cages” injustice – took to the stage to push his xenophobic agenda “America is for Americans only.”[7] Investor Grant Cardone used misogynistic language to demean Harris, with lines such as, “Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.”[8] And as has been the case with Trump for years, he and his supporters stood firmly in the racist legacy of eugenics and “intelligence” testing – another similarity they have with the Nazi rally of 1939 – with their frequent comments about race and IQ. Tucker Carlson “joked” that Kamala Harris is “the first Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president” a line to which the MAGA audience responded to with rapturous applause and approving laughter.[9]

Trump likewise repeated his line that Harris is “a very low IQ individual.” He called migrants “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals” who have invaded and conquered cities and towns in the United States.[10] He promised that he would launch the largest and most violent mass deportation program in U.S. history, ban sanctuary cities, and invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. He also stuck to his racist and transphobic playbook, railing against the specter of “critical race theory” and “transgender insanity.”[11] These are only a few of the many examples of the hateful rhetoric that flowed in abundance at the event. Perhaps the most reprehensible – and I would argue outright evil – line of the night belongs to Rudy Giuliani. Amidst of the ongoing U.S.-armed and U.S-funded genocide that Israel is committing against the people of Palestine – a genocide in which the genocidaires are targeting children – Giuliani angrily shouted, ““The Palestinians are taught to kill us at 2 years old!”[12] In addition to being an obvious lie, Giuliani’s words were a present-day version of the old genocidal axiom “nits make lice,” and serve the same function of justifying murderous settler colonial violence against children and babies.[13] The fact that Hinchcliffe’s “jokes” have received more public backlash than Guiliani’s straightforward hate speech points to how even the liberal establishment accepts racist Zionist settler logic about the inherent violence and inferiority of Palestinian people.

Beyond the speakers, the crowd itself was a festival of cruelty. As is the case with most MAGA gatherings, racist and misogynistic profanity permeated the crowd in the form of vulgar t-shirts and signs. For example, one elderly white man wearing a MAGA t-shirt held a homemade sign that pictured two black hands with middle fingers up and the words “FUCK KAMALA. WE AINT VOTING FOR THAT HOE [sic].”[14] None of the MAGA faithful who claim to be deeply concerned with so-called “family values” and “protecting children” seem to have any objections to the effect the obnoxiously visible displays of misogynistic and racist profanity that characterize MAGA gatherings might have on their children. This has been clear since the days when these good Christian values voters decided that Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women – the infamous “grab them by the pussy” recording – was acceptable rhetoric or mere “locker room banter.”[15] All of this taken together – the hateful rhetoric of the speakers and violent policies that the headlining act promised to enact if ever in power– is the context in which Hinchcliffe and others made racist “jokes.” Understood in context, the “jokes” of the event were not “just jokes,” but were a vital part of a larger fascist culture and discourse.

Using the cover of supposed humor as a Trojan horse for white nationalist violence and racist policies has long been a tactic of right-wing extremists. The early Ku Klux Klan and other similar terrorist groups – such as the Knights of the White Camellia, the Pale Faces, the Constitutional Union Guards, and the White Brotherhood – all who mobilized extralegal violence to reestablish white supremacist rule against the progress of multiracial Reconstructionists— often used humor as a cover for their heinous deeds. The early Klan, for example, did not wear white robes and hoods as they would later do following the release of the film The Birth of a Nation, but they dressed in a variety of individual costumes as to have the appearance of fun-loving, merry pranksters. In this same tradition, many of the January 6, 2021 MAGA rioters who attacked the Capitol, such as the armed young men who called themselves the “Boogaloo Bois” (the name itself was an inside joke) and other costumed rioters, wore silly or fun outfits while they participated in the attack: an example of the relationship between a certain type of humor and fascist violence.[16]  

 In volume five of his work A History of the American People, Woodrow Wilson, who would soon after be elected the 28th president of the United States, exemplified this “it’s just a joke” attitude in his defense of extralegal white mob violence. Wilson described the early Klan as mere “pranksters” whose lighthearted “zest” was all in good fun. They were not malicious terrorists, but simply young men engaging in inside jokes and “innocent mischief.” Wilson described these Klansmen as clever young “lads” having some fun with the supposed irrationality of Black people. The “extravagant prank and mummery” of these delightful Klansmen, explained Wilson, “threw the negroes into a very ecstasy of panic.” Wilson described Black fear of white vigilantes as “comic fear,” as these Klansmen meant no harm, but it was all just an inside joke.[17]  These supposed inside jokes grew into very real campaigns of ethnic cleansing, including mass murder, lynching, and sexual violence as tactics of re-establishing white supremacy against the progress of Reconstruction. This should serve as a warning in the present day against taking the far-right’s “it’s just a joke” justifications for their malicious attempts to “trigger the left” at face value.[18]

Back in 2015, shortly after Trump announced his[WB1] [KT2]  candidacy for president, and an informal army of anonymous “alt-right” trolls were busy, under the guise of “’it’s just jokes,” online harassing and threatening antiracists, feminists, and anyone they viewed as “the left,” I wrote a piece arguing that there is a difference between speech that is merely “offensive” and speech that actively feeds on and contributes to systemic oppression[WB3] [KT4] . I pointed out that during the Jim Crow era in US history; newspaper articles, songs, books, plays, political cartoons, and speeches – viewed by white society as lighthearted “humor” – that characterized Black men as hypersexual and violent beasts were far more than merely offensive. Such expressions reinforced and perpetuated a violent white supremacist system, justifying and fueling legal oppression such as Jim Crow laws and extralegal oppression such as lynching.[19] As a society, we have largely accepted that things like blackface minstrelsy and anti-Black political cartoons were not mere “humor”, but were part of the system of white supremacy. Yet, the underlying structure of “it’s just a joke” as a cover for systemic injustice remains firmly in place.

I wrote that piece soon after the “Gamergate” harassment campaign, which was, in the words of one sharp observer, “all about disguising a sincere wish for violence and upheaval by dressing it up in hyperbole and irony in order to confuse outsiders and make it all seem less serious.” Or in the words of another observer, it started as “ironic humor and jokes about the Holocaust, jokes about racial differences and whatnot. And over time, all those things became less joking.”[20] What the virtual “satire” of Gamergate amounted to was very real incidents of misogynistic harassment, threats, and assault against women and girls. Feminist scholars have long pointed out the role that supposed “jokes” play in the perpetuation of rape culture.[21]

Recently, on a CNN panel to discuss the violent and demeaning rhetoric of the Trump/Vance Madison Square Garden rally, conservative writer and activist Ryan Girdusky exemplified the very problem the panel was formed to discuss. When fellow panelist Mehdi Hasan expressed support for Palestinian rights, Girdusky fired back, “Well, I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”[22] Girdusky’s quip was in reference to Israel’s recent terror attack on Lebanon, in which Israeli operatives engineered the deadly explosions of handheld devices across Lebanon, wounding nearly 3,000 people, and killing at least 9 including an 8-year-old girl.[23] Hasan, correctly recognizing the difference between mere offensive jokes and violence under the guise of a “joke,” responded, “Did you just say I should die? Did you just say I should be killed?” The incident led CNN to ban Girdusky from future invites to the network, and stated “There is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air.”[24] Time will tell if CNN – which has played a role in normalizing anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim violence – sticks to that position or backpedals. Like Hinchcliffe, Girdusky took to Elon Musk’s app X to complain that “Apparently you can’t go on CNN if you make a joke.”[25]

That’s how unsophisticated and unaware the likes of Hinchcliffe, Girdusky, and Vance think we are, that we can’t tell the difference between a harmless joke and harmful hate speech that is part of the structure of a larger violent far-right culture, movement, and exterminationist policy orientation. Do not fall for it. Do not accept the narrative that those of us who care about equality and justice simply “can’t take a joke,” get “offended” too easily, or have no sense of humor. Do not allow these racists, transphobes, misogynists, Islamophobes, antisemites, and fascist bullies get away with using so-called humor as a Trojan horse for their far-right authoritarian agenda. And most importantly, do not let them use their disingenuous claims of “it’s just a joke” to browbeat, gaslight, or shame us into silence or acquiescence.

Tariq Khan is a historian and lecturer at Yale University.

He is the author of The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean (University of Illinois, 2023)

 

[1] They Might Be Giants, “Your Racist Friend,” Flood, Elektra Records, 1990.

[2] Mark Kennedy, “Who Is Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, Who Insulted Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden Rally?,” AP News, October 28, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/tony-hinchcliffe-puerto-rico-things-to-know-25e303873fac6fde3afdab80d941230d.

[3] Alec Hernández, “As Trump Courts Their Vote, Comedian at His Rally Makes Racist Jokes about Latinos and Puerto Rico,” NBC News, October 28, 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/comedian-trump-rally-makes-racist-jokes-latinos-puerto-rico-rcna177514.

[4] Ashley Carnahan, “Trump Denies Knowing Comedian Who Told Crude Joke about Puerto Rico: 'I Have No Idea Who He Is’,” Text.Article, Fox News (Fox News, October 29, 2024), https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-denies-knowing-comedian-who-told-crude-joke-about-puerto-rico-i-have-no-idea-who-he-is; “Vance Says ‘we Have to Stop Getting so Offended’ When Asked about Racist Jokes at Trump Rally,” NBC News, October 29, 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/vance-racist-jokes-trump-rally-stop-getting-offended-rcna177711.

[5] Kennedy, “Who Is Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, Who Insulted Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden Rally?”

[6] Dave Zirin, “Trump’s Rally Was a Desecration of Madison Square Garden,” The Nation, October 29, 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-rally-madison-square-garden-james-dolan/.

[7] Danielle Kurtzleben, “The Offensive Rhetoric Used at Trump’s Madison Square Garden Rally,” NPR, October 28, 2024, sec. Politics, https://www.npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-s1-5167948/the-offensive-rhetoric-used-at-trumps-madison-square-garden-rally.

[8] Kurtzleben.

[9] Kurtzleben.

[10] Steve Holland et al., “Trump Headlines Madison Square Garden Rally after Vulgar, Racist Remarks from Allies,” Reuters, October 28, 2024, sec. United States, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-kick-off-final-week-campaign-with-madison-square-garden-rally-2024-10-27/.

[11] Holland et al.

[12] A. B. C. News, “Video Rudy Giuliani Disparages Palestinians at Trump’s MSG Rally,” ABC News, accessed October 31, 2024, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/rudy-giuliani-disparages-palestinians-trumps-msg-rally-115231888.

[13] I write more in depth about the history of the heinous phrase “nits make lice” in my book: Tariq Khan, The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2023).

[14] Ryan Bort, “Surviving Trump’s Hate-Filled Takeover of Madison Square Garden,” Rolling Stone (blog), October 28, 2024, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/surviving-trump-hate-filled-takeover-madison-square-garden-1235145172/.

[15] David A. Fahrenthold, “Trump Recorded Having Extremely Lewd Conversation about Women in 2005,” Washington Post, October 7, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html.

[16] A.C. Thompson, Lila Hassan, and Karim Hajj, “The Boogaloo Bois Have Guns, Criminal Records and Military Training. Now They Want to Overthrow the Government.,” ProPublica, February 1, 2021, https://www.propublica.org/article/boogaloo-bois-military-training.

[17] Woodrow Wilson, A History of the American People, vol. 5 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1908), 58–64.

[18] This paragraph is excerpted from my book: Khan, The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression, 188.

[19] Tariq Khan, “Masking Oppression as ‘Free Speech’: An Anarchist Take,” Anarchist Agency (blog), October 28, 2015, https://anarchistagency.com/masking-oppression-as-free-speech-an-anarchist-take/.

[20] Aja Romano, “What We Still Haven’t Learned from Gamergate,” Vox, January 20, 2020, https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/1/20/20808875/gamergate-lessons-cultural-impact-changes-harassment-laws.

[21] Nicole L. Johnson and Dawn M. Johnson, “An Empirical Exploration Into the Measurement of Rape Culture,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 36, no. 1–2 (January 2021): NP70–95, https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517732347.

[22] Sharon Zhang, “CNN Guest Spews Hate at Mehdi Hasan: ‘I Hope Your Beeper Doesn’t Go Off,’” Truthout, October 29, 2024, https://truthout.org/articles/cnn-guest-spews-hate-at-mehdi-hasan-i-hope-your-beeper-doesnt-go-off/; Patrick Smith, “CNN Bans Conservative Guest for Telling Muslim Journalist ‘I Hope Your Beeper Doesn’t Go Off,’” NBC News, October 29, 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/cnn-bans-ryan-girdusky-mehdi-hasan-beeper-go-off-abby-phillip-rcna177566.

[23] Sharon Zhang, “2,800 Wounded, at Least 9 Killed Across Lebanon After Pagers Explode,” Truthout, September 17, 2024, https://truthout.org/articles/2800-wounded-at-least-9-killed-across-lebanon-after-pagers-explode/; Bassem Mroue, Abby Sewell, and Kareem Chehayeb, “Hezbollah Is Hit by a Wave of Exploding Pagers That Killed at Least 9 People and Injured Thousands,” AP News, September 17, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-exploding-pagers-8893a09816410959b6fe94aec124461b.

[24] Smith, “CNN Bans Conservative Guest for Telling Muslim Journalist ‘I Hope Your Beeper Doesn’t Go Off.’”

[25] Zhang, “CNN Guest Spews Hate at Mehdi Hasan.”

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