Off the Cuff: Tone-Deaf Tony and the Trumpster

Off the Cuff

The entire civilized world now knows that comedian “Tone-Deaf” Tony Hinchcliffe offended all humorless, self-important people when – at Trump’s recent re-imagining of the 1939 German-American Bund rally, starring himself as his role model, Adolph Hitler – he, Tone-Deaf Tony, described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

And the left went nuts. Predictably. Boringly. Tediously nuts.

I’ve been to Puerto Rico, once. It was a pleasant experience, mostly because my hosts controlled my itinerary. They took me to places where there was no garbage, like beautiful beaches and pink churches. I spoke at a private school in San Juan. It’s worth mentioning that my hosts, after agreeing to do so by contract, refused to pay my travel expenses. In more than forty years of public speaking, that is the one and only time that has happened. In Puerto Rico, the Floating Island of Many Fibbers.

I didn’t see piles of garbage in Puerto Rico, but I did see a village of people who were living in boxes constructed of cardboard and scrap lumber. I would imagine that Casitas El Junko is no longer there, but it is a lingering symbol of the vast gap between the haves and have-nots on that otherwise beautiful island.

About Tone-Deaf Tony, it appears we have forgotten that the definition of comedian is “an individual who causes people to laugh at themselves and other sacred cows.”

Comedians make fun of women, ethnic and racial groups, Democrats, Republicans, people who believe in climate change, people who don’t believe in climate change, people with mental health issues, various occupations, religious groups, and so on. That’s their job…to make us laugh at ourselves, whomever we may be and whatever we believe.

I’m a Caucasian cis-gendered male evangelical Christian conservative Republican who doesn’t care one whit when a comedian makes fun of Caucasians, cis-gendered males, evangelicals, or conservatives who vote straight-ticket Republican. Just don’t make fun of my wife or my dog.

Speaking as a mental health professional, one of the healthiest things a person can do is laugh at himself and the seriousness with which he takes himself. So, and for example, before Bill Maher backtracked, I thought he was funny. I laughed at his jokes, most of which targeted people like me – Caucasian, cis-blah, blah, blah people. Since his epiphany, I think he’s more interesting than he used to be, but not nearly as funny.

Some comedians are annoying, mind you. When a comedian panders to his audience – like, he mocks conservatives before an auditorium full of Hollywood clones – he’s annoying. But when the same comedian gets up in front of an audience hand-selected by George Clooney and Susan Sarandon and mocks the sacred cows of the left, he’s doing his job even if George and Susan can manage no more than a few grimaces.

The outrage from the Usual Suspects over Tone-Deaf Tony’s Puerto Rico jokes says little about Tony and a lot about them. The most significant thing it says about the Usual Suspects is they hate free speech and desperately desire to be appointed as the Final Arbiters of What Can and Cannot Be Said, Even When Sleep-Talking.

They hate free speech because they imagine themselves to be morally superior and free speech allows for speech that makes fun of everything and everyone they hold dear, which they cannot tolerate, and because they cannot tolerate the speech in question, they want to do away with it by law (which, by the way, is not the same as “lawfully”).

The morally superior among us believe their judgments should hold sway, always and concerning anything. They believe they are right and anyone who disagrees is, by definition, wrong. Therefore, and by definition, they are dangerous.

Tone-Deaf Tony is not dangerous. At worst, he is a mediocre comedian. Donald Trump is not dangerous. At worst, he is an unfiltered loudmouth in the tradition of the sort of males he grew up with in New Yawk. Trump’s bark is not matched by his bite. He has not said he is going to shred the Constitution, has he? No, and he won’t. If he is elected, Trump is going to RESTORE the Constitution. Do his enemies want to shred the Constitution? Yes, because the Constitution is the only thing that stands between themselves and their totalitarian dreams.

For the sake of Pete, wherever and whomever he is, vote Trump.

Copyright 2024, John K. Rosemond