Tony Hinchcliffe
Tony Hinchcliffe is the unapologetically dark stand-up comedian, roast master, and podcast host who became a household name, and a lightning rod, long before his 2024 Trump rally set made global headlines.
Tony Hinchcliffe is an American stand-up comedian born on June 8, 1988, in Youngstown, Ohio. He built his reputation in the Los Angeles comedy underground as a writer for Comedy Central Roasts and as the host of his own live roast show, Kill Tony, a long-running podcast and live event where he and a rotating panel brutally critique amateur and professional comedians in a rapid-fire format. The show has become one of the most-watched comedy podcasts in the world.
Hinchcliffe is known for an unfiltered, deliberately offensive style that sits firmly in the tradition of classic roast comedy. He was a writer on the Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber (2015) and has appeared on stage alongside Joe Rogan, who has been a major champion of his career. His style is confrontational by design, he courts controversy rather than dodging it.
He shot to mainstream notoriety in October 2024 when he performed at a Donald Trump campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, delivering a set that included racially charged jokes about Puerto Ricans and other groups. The backlash was swift and severe, the jokes were widely condemned as racist, the Trump campaign distanced itself from the remarks, and several of Hinchcliffe’s live shows were subsequently cancelled by venues.
People search for Hinchcliffe in massive numbers because of that MSG controversy, but also because Kill Tony has a fiercely loyal fanbase that treats the show like a sport. He sits at an unusual intersection of niche comedy royalty and mainstream infamy, a combination that keeps search interest consistently high.