Tony Hinchcliffe’s Netflix Specials: What to Know About the Controversial Comedian

Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian known for stirring controversy, particularly before the 2024 presidential election, is set to premiere his comedy specials on Netflix on April 7.

The 40-year-old comedian’s agreement with Netflix includes three comedy specials styled after his popular podcast, Kill Tony. In this podcast, aspiring comedians perform a 60-second set and then face roasts from Hinchcliffe and a panel of comedians. The first special was recorded at the Comedy Mothership in Austin, Texas. Beyond the three Kill Tony specials featuring various comedians and celebrity guests, Hinchcliffe will also have a one-hour special.

“We can’t wait to Netflix and Kill,” Hinchcliffe stated in a Netflix announcement on March 10.

The specials are likely to be controversial among liberal viewers, joining other Netflix comedy specials that have sparked debate. In recent years, Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais have faced criticism for jokes about the trans community in their Netflix specials.

Here’s what you need to know about Tony Hinchcliffe, significant moments in his career, and the new wave of comedy he represents.

How Tony Hinchcliffe got famous

Hinchcliffe grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, admiring comedians like Bill Burr and Bill Cosby. Like many comedians, his humor started from a place of sadness. He told Variety in 2024, “Anytime my father, who would visit sometimes, would come around, my goal was to make him laugh because I thought that would make him visit more.”

In 2007, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment. After opening for comedians such as Joe Rogan and Jeff Ross, he secured a writing position on “Comedy Central Roast,” gaining recognition, particularly for the jokes he wrote for Martha Stewart to roast Justin Bieber in 2015.

In 2013, he launched the Kill Tony podcast with Brian Redban at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. Hinchcliffe became famous for randomly selecting people from a “Bucket of Destiny” and then roasting them. The weekly podcast has over 700 episodes.

Hinchcliffe’s comedy differs from typical celebrity roasts because of his targets, according to Matt Sienkiewicz, co-author of That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them. “Hinchcliffe is mostly roasting people you’ve never heard of, which can make it feel much meaner.”

The question of where comedians should draw the line in their jokes is not new and doesn’t seem to exist for Hinchcliffe. Three years after facing backlash for using a slur to describe Asian-American comedian Peng Dang, he stood by his actions, telling Variety in 2024, “my stance is that comedians should never apologize for a joke, should never stop working if everyone comes after them and should never slow down. In fact, they should utilize anything that happens to them for more material.”

“The comedy world tended to be dominated by center and center-left personalities broadly, and now we’re seeing a real incursion of right wing voices who use aggressive, offensive joking as cover for free speech principles,” says Nick Marx, co-author of That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them.

Why Hinchcliffe is having a moment

Hinchcliffe went viral in October when he referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” at a Madison Square Garden rally for GOP nominee Donald Trump. Celebrities like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and even the Mayor of San Juan, criticized his comments. Trump’s campaign even released a statement saying, “These jokes do not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” However, others argued that people should be able to take a joke, with Vice President Mike Pence stating, “We have to stop getting so offended.”

Hinchcliffe also gained attention for making homophobic remarks and jokes about slavery during a roast of Julian Edelman, star of the NFL’s New England Patriots, at a Netflix comedy festival in May.

“Being an outrage comic, a roast comic, an insult comic, somebody who wants to push buttons on race, anti-semitism, homophobia—that’s sort of timeless and ageless,” says Sienkiewicz.

But Hinchcliffe, and similarly provocative podcaster Joe Rogan, are connecting with an online audience in new ways. While liberal comedians have traditionally dominated TV, many successful right-leaning comedians have built their audience through podcasts, YouTube, and by collaborating with other right-wing media figures. These comedians resonate with young men at a time when a significant percentage of them voted for the incumbent president.

Clearly, Netflix is aiming to attract more of this audience to its platform. When questioned in March about Dave Chappelle and whether there were any lines for standup specials he would not cross, Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos said, “The cost of entry is you do have to be funny for enough people, so there’s a bit of a juice worth the squeeze argument… I was always a big standup comedy fan, and I knew that the art form itself always needed a safe place to try things out.” He drew parallels between the controversy surrounding Hinchcliffe and past criticism of boundary-pushing comedians like Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, and Richard Pryor. “I think comedians define the culture in a bunch of ways, and they do that by figuring out where the lines are and the joke is.”

As Marx puts it, Hinchcliffe has a “knack for eliciting a reaction from that audience, and that’s what Netflix wants. They want engagement. They are not going to be as invested in the ideology of their performer, as long as it keeps people subscribed and logged into Netflix.”