Recently a comedian friend of mine made the comment that Tony Hinchcliffe’s new special is bad.

This isn’t a controversial opinion. It’s an opinion shared by pretty much anyone who evaluates comedy specials. YouTube is flooded with commentary on what a load of unfunny racist shit it is. Every opinion I’ve seen about it is negative, with most saying it’s pretty much the worst comedy special they’ve ever seen.

This doesn’t surprise me at all. Tony Hinchcliffe is an incredibly unfunny racist piece of shit as a comedian so I’d expect no less of his latest special.

His previous special, the aptly-titled “Garbage”was fucking awful – an unfunny racist piece of shit that followed his unfunny racist jokes at a Trump rally that were so fucking bad that even Trump distanced himself from and made sure the public knew that Trump doesn’t know him and didn’t knowingly hire him.

And then there’s the first special, “One Shot” that was so bad and unfunny that Hinchcliffe himself has deleted and buried it, denying it’s existence in history.

So yeah. It’s a bad special and it’s not a controversial hot take to say so. Claiming otherwise would be setting fire to your own credibility.

But if the world has taught us anything in the last decade, it’s that even the world’s objectively worst people have staunch defenders. So naturally, someone leaps in to my friend’s comment and chastises him. He says it’s bad form for comedians to disparage other comedians.

Is that a good point? It sounds like one. I’ll be the first to tell you that comedians shouldn’t heckle, undermine, or disrupt their peers while they’re doing their thing. I don’t think anyone would disagree that it’s cunty behaviour to do so, no matter what you think of them or their act.

But that’s not what’s going on here. I responded to this comment by asking the challenger whether they believed that the comedian’s right to free speech they supposedly champion somehow excludes their opinions about shitty comedy specials. I asked them whether they were trying to enforce an imaginary law that penalized comedians for having and articulating the ideas that are allowed for the rest of the world. I asked whether they thought shitty comedy specials are a sacred cow, even to comedians whose mission statement includes calling out sacred cows.

Yeah I think Brendon’s comment was legitimate and uncontroversial. And I think being a comedian shouldn’t prevent him from calling out a ridiculous pile of dogshit. I think being a comedian obligated him to call out a ridiculous pile of dogshit.

Is Hinchcliffe a sacred cow? The guy is a professional bully. His shitty comedy specials aren’t his main gig. Bullying people on his podcast show is. I have a future post about that half-written, so watch this space.

I know the stock defense that will be at play here. Hinchcliffe is wildly successful, more successful than anyone who criticises them, and that makes any criticism invalid. I think the flaw in this argument is obvious. It’s a claim that if you make enough money you’re immune to criticism and therefore perfect. We all know how fucking perfect everyone in the Epstein class is, right?

Yeah, it’s a bullshit response. But it’s still regularly invoked when someone like me, a little guy they’ve never heard of, dares to critique a comic genius (i.e. multimillionaire) like Joe Rogan, Bert Kreischer, Ricky fucking Gervais, Tom Segura, Andrew Schulz, or Tony fucking Hinchcliffe.

It’s also a bit of a defining aspect of the entertainment industry. When I was about 19 and a musician in a band who was courting deals with record companies, I once found myself playing pool in the Spring Hill Tavern with a then-famous music industry personality, our manager, and the head of the label we eventually signed to.

The song playing in the background was by Milli Vanilli, who I was definitely not a fan of, and I said something disparaging about them. The record label head instantly rounded on me and gave me a very public, loud, and angry dressing-down. His face radiated aggression and fury that might surprise the Australian public, who generally perceive him as cool and jocular.

What he said to me was that Milli Vanilli was a tentpole, single-handedly making their label the biggest and most profitable it had ever been. He told me that when I was selling 80 million albums for them, I might be entitled to an opinion. But until then I was a little nobody with a big fucking mouth and stupid, unqualified opinions that I should fucking well keep to myself. Or something like that.

I remember all the blood rushing to my face and feelings of shame while the rest of my band glared at me for the rest of the day. Not my fondest memory.

This, for the record, was about 6 months before the Milli Vanilli scandal that proved embarrassing, expensive, and problematic for the label.

I’m certain that they’d still assert that they were somebody, therefore right, and I was nobody, therefore wrong. That concept still exists today. I hear it every time I dare to think I have a right to an opinion about a rich and famous comic like Ricky fucking Gervais or Tony fucking Hinchliffe.

I don’t think I should have to sell out stadiums before I have the right to an opinion about whether Bert Kreischer is funny or not (he’s not, btw). But I completely understand the idea that nobody’s interested in the opinions of someone like little old me.

My friend who expressed the opinion, though, is another matter. I’m trying not to name-drop, but he’s successful with a long-standing career. He’s a “comic’s comic,” respected by his peers. He won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival, which is the gold medal at the Olympics of the comedy world. If he said my special was shithouse, I’d pay attention.

I’d also make this point: Criticism from other comics is more legitimate, not less. We know the craft and what it entails. We watch specials with more of a critical eye. We recognise the techniques and structures deployed in them. Our opinions are objectively more informed than those from civilians. When you say that criticism isn’t welcome from comedians, you’re disqualifying all of the most legitimate feedback.

As a comedian I actually feel obligated to speak up when I see utter horseshit from other comics. It’s funny that those of us who speak out are considered to represent our community badly. I think the shitty comic who stinks up the room, the edgelord who alienates everyone with racist, misogynistic, or phobic trash, or the awful comic who pollutes Netflix with shitty punch-down fests is the one representing us badly.

If we don’t say anything or present contrary evidence, people will assume stand-up comedy is garbage. As far as I’m concerned, the bad comics who shit in public are a problem for the community, not the ones who point out they don’t represent of all of us. How entitled are these fuckers who put hate and bullshit into the world in our name and then tell the rest of us to bite our tongues?

Fuck you guys, I’m a comedian. A big part of that is calling out garbage and removing artificial protections from sacred cows. If you’re a comedian, you’ll get it, and you won’t be claiming exceptions for your particular sacred cows.

And we have to call it out. It’s heartbreaking to see a flood of shitty Netflix specials and know that this will be most people’s exposure to stand-up comedy and they’ll form all their opinions based on it. People’s first live comedy experience could be watching a fuckwit at an open mic trying to offend and upset them, and they won’t come out again.

Some of you will be asking whether a vastly funded Netflix special isn’t validating, a sign of quality. And that sure sounds like a point. We might assume that’s how it works because we feel that’s how it should be. But when Netflix committed to keep platforming Dave Chapelle after his anti-trans tirades they effectively told us that they don’t want our approval. They want our engagement, which is waaaay more profitable than approval.

And that’s how you get Brendon Schaub’s “Gringo Papi,” Joe Rogan’s “Burn The Boats,” Ricky Gervais’ “Armaggedon,” Chris D;Elia’s “Grow or Die,” Matt Rife’s “Natural Selection” and Tony fucking Hinchcliffe’s “Man of the People.”

And Theo Von’s shitty special. Although, unlike all of those blowhards, he has enough self-awareness to know it, retract it, explain and apologise for his contribution. The rest of them defend their shitty specials by telling you how rich and famous they are.

What we end up with is a massive audience of people who think that’s what stand-up comedy is all about and as good as it gets.

Frankly, I wish more of us would speak out and tell everyone that this unfunny toxic crap from unfunny toxic people does not represent us, because fuckers like Rogan and Hinchcliffe are actually ruining comedy for everyone.

They’re presenting their bullshit as a massive scene and the entirely of what it’s all about, claiming everything that happens outside of Austin is irrelevant snowflake material. Rogan’s actually said he thinks there are only 250 real comedians in the world. And he includes himself on that list. In fact, his list mostly consists of comics with famously bad specials.

Everyone has a right to evaluate a piece of media. Everyone, even comedians. We have the same rights to expression as everyone else. Hell, comedians crap on about their right to free speech more than anyone. I’ve recently observed that comedians reserve the right to hurt your feelings but get really weird when you say something that offends them.

Fuck that. Tony Hinchcliffe is not a “Roastmaster” and the Emperor has no fucking clothes. If you spray shit into the world and tell everyone it’s comedy, I’ll be right up there, correcting you alongside everyone else.

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