Joe Rogan said on his podcast Wednesday that he warned comedian Tony Hinchcliffe to not tell his joke about Puerto Rico at former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.
“I tell all comedians, don’t ever do comedy at something that’s not a comedy event,” Rogan said on “The Joe Rogan Experience. “Don’t do it. Don’t ever do comedy at a place that’s doing ‘also.’ Is he going to have a bunch of speakers and you’re going to do 10 minutes? Don’t ever do that. It’s a terrible setup.”
Hinchcliffe is friends with Rogan and records his podcast at Rogan’s venue in Austin. Hinchcliffe, who hosts the popular podcast "Kill Tony," stirred controversy Sunday when he made fun of Puerto Rico saying, "I don't know if you know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico."
Rogan said while he doesn’t like the joke, it always kills when Hinchcliffe performs at a comedy club.
“I said to him, it’s just like, if you’re Puerto Rican and you hear that in the audience, you’re like, ‘ahhh,’ but it’s a funny joke, the joke does well,” Rogan said. “But I said to him, I go, 'Dude, that’s the one that’s going to get you stabbed.'”
The joke earned bipartisan rebukes from both Republicans and Democrats. On X, Hinchcliffe responded to a video of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., criticizing his comments.
"These people have no sense of humor," Hinchcliffe said. "Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his 'busy schedule' to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist. I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone … watch the whole set. I'm a comedian Tim … might be time to change your tampon."
Rogan said he expects the controversy to fade away.
“I think it’ll blow over just like all these things do,” he said. “There are people that are always going to hate someone like Tony and it’s going to make other people love him more. It’s just, like, he’s going through it right now. He’s going through the storm."