This story actually has two Kyles and a Jack in it. What I’m referring to is a recent news story in which Kyle Gass, half of the comedy rock duo Tenacious D, made a joke onstage that many believe crossed a line. The fallout from it has been quite amazing, more than I’d have expected.

First, the joke and the scene: This happened during a sold-out Australian show by Tenacious D. It was also Kyle Gass’ 64th birthday, and they had a whole thing about that which culminated in everyone urging him to make a wish.

His wish? “Don’t miss Trump next time,” a reference to the attempted assassination of former and wannabe again American President/Fraudster/Reality TV Wanker/Wantapreneur/Rich Bully/Con Man/Hitler Stan (but don’t you dare point it out) Donald Trump.

I thought that, like any other joke at a comedy show, it might be considered off-colour to some but would quickly be forgotten by all. It’s not exactly the most shocking or subversive thing a comedian’s ever said on stage.

But at the risk of sounding like clickbait, what happened next might surprise you. Lots of people went a bit nuts about it, and they gave extra spotlight time to the utterance by making loud public performative responses to it.

The first and possibly the loudest of these was radio shock-jock Kyle Sandilands. He announced that the duo are “banned for life” from his radio show.

Remember radio shows? No, me neither. Radio’s like Streaming: Except you have no control over what you hear, there’s heaps of really obnoxious ads and some large chunks of it are dominated by irritating personalities that come in two varieties – Loud and Zany, or Entitled and Angry.

In addition to being irritating and tiresome, both types generally align with right-wing agendas, some rabidly so, with the exception of the free speech issue which they generally fight for because so much of their own utterances are egregious.

Kyle Sandilands is an especially egregious example of these. So when he described the joke as the “worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life” I can only assume he’s never actually listened to himself.

After all, this is the guy who said disgusting things about disabled people and the Paralympics and then went on to use the monkeypox virus to make a bunch of homophobic comments. He joked about how concentration camps are great for weight loss. He’s said and defended all of that, so I was surprised to see him set the “offensive” bar so low for actual comedians.

And to take it a step further, he declared that they’re “banned for life” from his show. I laughed but I doubt that Tenacious D would notice or give a shit.

Comedians do shitty radio shows with shitty radio jocks to promote and sell tickets when they have to. They usually hate doing it.

I don’t think that Tenacious D, whose shows in another country were already sold out, had any aspirations to take their place alongside the other victims that Sandilands has bullied on air. Sandilands announcement is just self-aggrandizing performative puffery.

It’s as ridiculous as if I said that I don’t agree with Gal Gadot’s comments about the Middle East, so I won’t sleep with her. I’ll never say it and she’ll never give a shit.

And it’s not just Sandilands… Remember Kevin Rudd? I’m talking former Prime Minister and self-described champion of free speech (he described it as “robust language”) back in the day. This is the guy who described Trump as a “traitor to the west.”

That’s a long time ago, back when he was cool. Seemingly also a traitor, but only to his former self, he’s now admonishing Tenacious D, telling them to “grow up and get a decent job”. You know; Something wholesome and nice. Like politics.

Then came the biggest over-reaction of all. Jack Black himself, the other half of Tenacious D, distanced himself from it and actually broke up the successful 30+ year partnership over it.

WTF? Just wow…

Obviously there’s some problems with performing as a duo, and it’s one of the reasons I don’t. A solo comic’s job is to present a distinct and unique point of view, and sometimes defending an indefensible position will be part of that. Assign that job to two people who won’t always be on the same page, and there’ll be some fallout. I don’t ever want to be put on the spot by something another comic said, and I don’t want to work on eggshells worried about putting someone else through it.

And even though we’ve come to expect some gravitas and a point of view from intelligent comics, it’s not always a job requirement. Kyle Gass maybe wants to articulate a perspective, and Jack Black’s success has always been as an entertainer who makes funny noises and pulls funny faces. Jack doesn’t want to cramp his mass-market appeal by presenting a divisive point of view.

I know how reductive and harsh that sounds, but there’s clearly some ideological differences. Maybe this joke shows us who’s the comedian and who’s the actor.

I do have to wonder why, to so many people, Donald Trump is some kind of protected species.

I’ll always reveal my biases, never want to sneak them into my material as a hidden agenda. So I’ll tell you right now that I despise Trump and I’m not really a fan of Tenacious D either. They’re ok. I find them amusing clever sometimes but it’s not me they’re selling their shows out to. This isn’t me defending my peers or anything. This is me wondering where the outrage comes from when Donald is the target.

Time for some jokes:

Q: What do you call 25 attorneys buried up to their chins in cement?
A: Not enough cement.

Q: What do you call 25 dead lawyers?
A: A good start.

These are old and you’ve probably heard them and similar ones before. If you Google lawyer jokes, you’ll find lots of hilarious hatred and murderous intent. I don’t know anyone who’s offended or shocked by these, and I can’t imagine anyone getting banned of cancelled for them. They’re not as egregious as anything Kyle Sandilands has ever said.

I suspect that the problem of the joke isn’t the content of the joke; it’s the target of the joke.

Certainly in the case of Sandilands. He thinks anything is acceptable as long as it’s punching down. If it’s starving prisoners, the LBTQ+ community or people with disabilities, he thinks it’s hilarious. I’m not even convinced at his argument that he’s outraged at a joke about assassinations, considering he threatened to “hunt down” and do the same to one of his female critics on his show.

Nope, he seems to have a problem with punching up. People with fame and money and power are off the table, apparently. Or he just likes Trump. I mean, Sandilands is human trash, a giant loudmouthed piece of shit person so it’s possible he sees something of himself in another wealthy blowhard bully like Trump.

Normally it wouldn’t be outrageous for a public figure to be joked about like this. It might be a little tasteless, but it’s never been a hill that advocates of free speech are prepared to die on. Especially a former politician who’s since been convicted of fraud. That would be game-on… for anyone but Trump.

I can’t work it out. I’m not attached to Tenacious D. Their decisions are their own. But ending a successful three-decade partnership over a joke that’s well within the scope of the the job description and capitulating to the performative outrage of another ex-pollie and some radio wanker in another country who routinely says worse things is kind of perplexing to me.

We live in mysterious times.