The latest show on Tenacious D’s Australian tour has been postponed after senator Ralph Babet demanded the pair be deported following an apparent joke about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
American comedy rock duo Jack Black and Kyle Gass were due to perform in Newcastle on Tuesday evening, but the show – part of the band’s Spicy Meatball Tour – was cancelled without notice on Tuesday afternoon.
Concert promoter Frontier Touring said on social media that it regretted “to advise that Tenacious D’s concert tonight at Newcastle Entertainment Centre has been postponed”.
Video from the event showed (Kyle) Gass being presented with a birthday cake and told to “make a wish” as he blew out the candles. Gass then appeared to say “don’t miss Trump next time” – just hours after the shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania that left the former president injured.
Kyle is a cool guy.
How bizarre that an Australian politician is getting his panties in a twist over American politics.
I’m aware of the cultural absorption by other countries of American culture, but it really seems subordinate and pandering of politicians from other countries to emotionally invest themselves in American issues.
Almost as bad as the pandering, subservient American politicians themselves.
The fascists are infecting the whole world with their brain rot via the internet. Nowhere is immune.
The fascists were already there, they’re just not hiding anymore.
True, but they’re recruiting new members faster than before.
Are they? I haven’t read many articles about their recruitment numbers.
I feel like they’ve been steadily crawling out from under rocks, but I don’t know if the base itself is growing.
They absolutely are growing. They’re heavily targeting youth to indoctrinate, as well:
Online extremism makes sense, and targeting the vulnerable makes sense, I’m more curious about the specific growth by numbers versus the numbers before, as far as we have them.
I’ll look into it.
So many socially progressive policies grow more popular according to general population polls, I can’t help but feel like the loud and proud conservatives are making it seem like there are more than their actually are.
Even in Europe, before Trump was a twinkle in he conservative eye, there were plenty of alt-right movements, they just weren’t socially acceptable.
I was in a tiny town in Austria one week and the bar patrons were complaining about some local fascist event/gathering that they were all embarrassed about, or so I was told.
True but now they’re all rallying behind Trump like he’s their divine leader.
It does seem like he’s tearing the traditional conservative movement apart though where they hide under rocks and bite ankles. Now they’re all just kind of naked in the wind.
It is creepy, the cult like fascination they have with such a dumb, gross rapist, but I’d rather have all the zealots comfortably exposed and openly committing fraud and getting fired for slurs then secretly planning these movements like they’ve been doing for decades.
The second cumming as it were.
He’s a false prophet at best.
Motherfucker is a charlatan. People believe he is filthy rich and he can make them rich too if they work for him. But that asshole only thinks about himself, as he has proven repeatedly with all his past projects.
The Aussies have an extreme right wing thing going on and that group just absolutely fucking loves trump cuz he’s the fast-fasch king.
I remember them copying the truck convoys and other dumb American stunts.
The Murdoch empire transcends borders
In case it’s not clear to any Lemmings, Rupert Murdoch is an Australian and owns Fox News. His influence is the common thread between US and Australian conservative politics.
Babet is a weird little dude. He preaches during an empty chamber and puts it on his social media as though he makes a difference about conspiracy theory enquiries.
Wow, that is odd.
Gotta lick that boot eh
Australian government is like that
Because “the people” figuring out there’s way more of them than there is of the ruling class is the only real fear the ruling class have.
They’re all on the same team. There are no borders with global fascism.
And they all know it, but somehow politicians pretend like they’re all independent and any support or praise is just incidental.
It’s just geopolitical Game of Thrones shit
It’s crazy because if they made the same joke in America few people might be pissed, that’s about it. They wouldn’t be banned, and their demographic is not the type to be mad about that comment. It would barely actually affect them here.
I’m sure the people upset about Kyle Gass’s statement were JUST AS UPSET when Republicans joked about Nancy Pelosi’s attempted Assassination!
Yes?
We’re always joking about “facing the consequences of your actions”. Kyle is facing the consequences of his actions, why are you upset about it?
Most people think that encouraging violence is a bad thing and should be denounced, do you disagree?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to political violence. Some portion of the populace will justify any specific violent action, and it’s up to the history books to tell us which of those were actually justifiable. I get the feeling we’d land on different sides of this one.
What does justified even mean in this context though? Are you in favour of capital punishment? Of vigilante justice?
Trump is a horrible person who, if elected, will harm the lives of very many people. I simply do not believe assassinating him is a legitimate tactic. There are so many problems inherent with political violence that I don’t even know where to start.
To me, advocating for political violence is a position detached from reality. Akin to wondering why the western world doesn’t simply declare war on Russia over their invasion of Ukraine. It may seem/be the morally correct thing to do, but the consequences of doing it are far reaching and extremely complicated.
Honestly idk what I’m trying to say other than I don’t think violence against Nazis is an effective strategy. I think it’s reactionary and short sighted and will only make the problem worse.
Serious answer: I think it’s a worrying sign of the times if anyone thinks of political violence as anything other than abhorrent. The reasons they might: he’s stacked the highest court in the land with hacks who’ve handed him immunity. He’s succeeded on the back of lies and smear tactics. So he’s killed truth and justice, and he’s just getting started. His party have gerrymandered themselves into a perpetual obstructionist role that makes a mockery of democracy.
He’s a convicted felon and Russian asset who is about to be elected president. How far can we be taken into dystopia before “abhorrent political violence” becomes “absolutely necessary revolutionary action?”
To be fair, he was encouraging accuracy, not violence. Let us not forget that a fire fighter got killed in this shooting instead of Shitstain L’Orange
Since google puts twitter feeds at the top and that cesspit is full of idiots i decided to check lemmy to see if i was alone in thinking this is a huge over reaction.
Pretty safe to say that people of lemmy are my people.
Personally i see it as a joke, maybe one in bad taste. Maybe one that shouldn’t have been said. But a joke none the less. Its certainly interesting to see how the right react when the shoe is on the other foot.
He’s a comedian for fucks sake. He’s supposed to make jokes. Whether dark or not. I’m so tired of manufactured corporate outrage
This is a taste of what’s to come if Trump is reelected. Mocking Dear Leader in good taste or bad becomes a punishable offense. Freedom of Speech goes out the window, disrespecting snowflakes in office is not allowed.
I literally just had this argument with a friend. I made the same points as you. It was tongue and cheek. While not an OK think to say, it’s comedians making jokes. Cancelling a tour and deportation seems like a gross overreaction to me.
Especially from an explicitly politically left performer like Black. Grow some balls man.
Ah, but you forget that nobody has a sense of humour any more. We can’t laugh at ourselves let alone anybody else.
Babet asking for deportation is not the real story - he’s just an idiot making ridiculous statements for attention.
I don’t really buy into the “just a joke” defense. There’s plenty of things one could say “as a joke” that we would and should denounce as a society, and political violence is one of them. Celebrities have a responsibility to uphold social norms or at the very least not to normalise concepts we will not tolerate as a society including political violence.
Yes, you and me can see that what was said was “just a joke” but there’s plenty of people who would hear that joke and assume that wishing Trump would be assassinated is a normal opinion.
[Jack Black][(https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-16/tenacious-d-trump-joke-cancel-australia-tour/104105448) has cancelled the rest of the tour, and not because of Babet’s comments, but more likely because he can’t continue with Gass.
There’s plenty of things one could say “as a joke” that we would and should denounce as a society, and political violence is…
Not one of them. Kyle isn’t a militia member calling to arms and no vulnerable people are being harmed by being irreverent about a fascist preaching violence barely missing the consequences. Don’t punch down, but do punch Nazis.
Celebrities have a responsibility to uphold social norms or at the very least not to normalise concepts we will not tolerate as a society including political violence.
What the fuck do you think comedy is about?
Well I think comedy is obviously not about assassinating politicians I don’t like, and apparently jack black agrees with me.
Thats just PR damage control. Jack Black is a very wealthy person, he just made a new kung fu panda film, his image with the public is that of an extremely friendly, kind to all humans and fans, sort of person. He doesn’t remotely fit in with a crowd that makes jokes about killing the former president. He is distancing himself from it and its what anyone in his position would do if they care more about money and fame than politics.
It has lowered my op8nion of him though. Hes not the nice guy that he presents. Hes just another rich out of touch celebrity if he follows this path. He should support kyle and defend him. His influence is stronger than kyles and could sway public opinion that kyle was 100% joking.
He is distancing himself from it and its what anyone in his position would do if they care more about money and fame than politics.
This is a post hoc fallacy. As in someone who cares more about money would distance themselves from this, but that doesn’t mean that JB cares more about money. IMO, any self respecting celebrity that doesn’t want western politics to descend into violent adversarial combat would also distance themselves from a comment like that.
kyle was 100% joking.
It doesn’t matter. As I’ve said some jokes are completely inappropriate.
Totally fair about the first comment. Its fair to say that jack black may have other reasons for trying to distance himself from it. But it was a huge decision to drop the tour and potentially the band based on one bad joke. Its got PR written all over it. But i accept that it might not be money, or at least not just about money.
Second comment is more subjective. There are many who would disagree with you.
Personally i think that if kyle, even if it was only in the moment, thought it was appropriate to make that joke then it should be taken as an indication of how scary it is that trump might become president again. That people laughed should be an indication that people dislike trump enough to not be shocked by the comment. The comments from people defending kyle should show that hatred for trump runs deep and perhaps it should be considered when determining what to do about this.
If people are ok wih a joke about killing trump then maybe people should be looking more seriously at what trump is doing and what he stands for.
Sorry mate that’s a pretty thin argument.
Someone might be challenged to reconsider after hearing a joke like that, but many millions will just think that sort of opinion is normal. It’s ok at want political opponents dead.
CANCEL CULTURE!!!
PS: Elon Musk and the rest of the hypocrites can stuff their opinions about how to react to assassination attempts after the way they responded to Nancy Pelosi’s husband being attacked.
as always, they’re based.
i don’t think that idiot killing him would accomplish anything but don’t pretend it would’ve been a sad day if we lost a SELF-PROCLAIMED WANNABE DICTATOR.
I don’t think Trump’s death would solve anything.
The only positive outcome is for him to get trashed in the polls in november.,
Pragmatically it definitely would. Republicans have a fairly unpopular platform they’re running behind a demagogue. The rest of the party “stars” have the personality of a wet paper towel so hard to imagine them garnering anywhere near the enthusiasm.
It might not solve anything, but at least he’d be gone. We all know he isn’t going to be punished in any meaningful way for anything he’s done, so at least him being killed would mean he could no longer bring harm to anyone.
I think it would have. It would kick something off, but I have a feeling whatever got started would end fairly quickly.
Also, like another reply to your comment said, the other possible candidates don’t have nearly the same amount of popularity with “the base”
It would, you don’t see people screaming “Republican Party!”, you see them screaming “Trump!”.
fascists worship whoever’s at the top. they will fall in line.
Not really, it died in Spain with Franco and in Italy with Mussolini and there was no second coming of the Nazi party in Argentina where all the officials ran to.
except the republican party isn’t any of these parties. it was fascist before him and will stay so after him. anyone who thinks one man dying will suddenly stop the republican fascist party from enacting their agenda that they’ve been working on for decades is either wishcasting or has been in a coma for the last half century.
Ok but what would they scream if Trump was assassinated? It wouldn’t solve the hyper partisan hatred.
I tentatively agree. The man himself I have no sympathy for, but an assassination of presidential nominee would have made everything even worse. GOP would get a huge boost, and could replace Trump with someone that is actually competent enough to fully implement their 2025 treason-esque bullshit. Not to mention how much that would have inflamed an already looney tunes level of political discourse.
It’s also just not how we should do things in America. Call me a hopeless patriot, but we should try to live up to the ideals we espouse.
Why does everyone say they would get a boost? Literally no one who is going to vote for Biden is going to change their vote because of that. At most it would energize the base but Republicans don’t really have an issue with that like Democrats anyway.
the problem isn’t that a replacement candidate energizes republican voters, it’s that TFG energizes democratic voters. he invokes a lot of negative partisanship. there are a lot of people who think “bOtH sIdEs aRe tHe sAmE”, but more people think so when one of the sides isn’t the orange turd, so with him gone there would likely be less turnout for democrats.
idk why people keep forgetting how unpopular he is and always was. the reason biden is getting his ass kicked in the polls isn’t because his opponent is popular. it’s because he’s giving major “died years ago and being weekend at bernie’sd through the election season” vibes.
He was shot by a conservative. Why would there be a boost? It’s not like this would be in an alternate universe where he was shot by an antifa supersoldier. If Joe Biden got shot by a Democratic loner people would think “man that’s weird”, not “we have to punish the Republicans”.
I don’t think it would prompt some kind of vindictive vote. That side of it is only going to energize those who were vehemently republican anyway. Republicans would hammer on any and all sympathy they can eke from having their candidate assassinated (regardless of the truth they will say it was the left, and at best people will think the guy was just crazy), and the average person only half paying attention will eat it up. Dems would be even more hamstrung in their rhetoric against the GOP considering the gravity of an event like that. Even with that aside, they’re now running Joe Biden against whichever face the GOP tells their voters to line up behind – who you can bet will be all in on the kind of stuff that will do even more lasting damage to our country. Biden is not a strong candidate, and without the uniquely unlikable personality and character of Trump I’m not sure there’s enough motivation amongst voters to carry him to another term.
But all of that was a lot to type, so I just said it would give them a massive boost
It would definitely accomplish something. It’s not clear if that would necessarily be a positive thing, but it would definitely be a pivotal moment in history. Even just the attempted assassination might eventually be seen as pivotal.
The right-wing is full of so many contradictory forces, and right now it’s only Trump’s cult of personality that’s holding them together. It seems very likely to me that post-Trump they’re going to fracture. If Trump becomes dictator he’ll probably groom Don Jr. to succeed him, and he’ll eliminate anybody who might question that decision. But, right now, Jr. is not in a position to take over from dad, so if Trump were no longer in the picture, there would be a power vacuum and massive infighting.
But, if the assassination attempt had succeeded, there would probably have been a lot more political killings, and just violence in general.
Without a head, the body withers.
not so with a hydra
Man everyone just gonna roll over for trump. Are we still expecting the justice system to hold him accountable?
Seems like it. Everyone is being told to stop the harsh criticisms of Trump because it’s what fueled the political violence. Dont fall for the gaslighting. He’s a fucking fascist and we should still treat him as such.
Yeah it’s normal when he calls for political violence that results in “Hang Mike Pence!” chants, but when he’s the target of it, somehow it’s now bad.
“We can’t stoop to their level!”
Meanwhile, right-wingers are happily hamstringing everyone.
It’s not stooping when all that bad shit is true
Happy Birthday Kyle
Keep on rockin! 🤘
I’m sure all the fans that wanted to go to the show will be very thankful to the senator for cancelling the show at the last minute for political reasons. Free speech must not be allowed in Australia
Free speech isn’t a constitutional right in Australia, or in most places. Conservative voices have been blocked from Australia before. In 2019 it was that Milo guy, and I think Lauren Southern was banned from the UK?
That’s a deportation-worthy statement?
As far as immigration goes (even temporary) Oz still has the equivalent of moral turpitude regulations. They can be quite strict. They can also just say they don’t like the cut of your jib.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied Djokovic was being singled out and said no-one was above the country’s rules. But he added that Djokovic’s stance on vaccination had drawn attention.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59889522
Note that this is only an example of a famous person running afoul of Australian immigration. Anti vaxxers are of course assholes and morons.
Land of the free, freedom of speech, lmao
Yes Newcastle, Australia - the land of the free as it was always known
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Do they get kicked with a boot now?
Also that particular Senator is from a particularly stupid minority party owned by a billionaire.
Hold my Bud Light.
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Babet’s comments aren’t the real story though - he’s just a dog whistling idiot trying to get attention.
Jack Black cancelled the rest of the tour, and not because of what Babet said:
Jack Black, one half of the American comedy rock duo Tenacious D, says he no longer feels it is “appropriate” to continue the band’s tour following a controversial joke by his bandmate Kyle Gass at the band’s recent Sydney show.
“I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday,” Black wrote in a statement posted on Instagram.
Celebrities should not condone political violence. “It was just a joke” doesn’t give you a free pass. There’s plenty of things one could say as a joke which are completely inappropriate and unacceptable.
Lost some respect for JB here
Same. Have some fucking loyalty to your boy, he said nothing warranting this reaction.
He’s afraid of getting cancelled
Meh. I think what you really mean by “lost some respect” is that you’ve realised that JB has a different stance on this to your own.
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In America you can apparently buy a senator for less than the price of a home, and a Supreme Court justice for an RV and some vacation trips.
Can’t make jokes without getting deported from Australia?
Politics really is just a show for morons.
I mean, it used to be that you got deported to Australia for spicy comments about the ruling class.
Oh how the turntables.
Australia is essentially just Texas without guns. It’s run by an ultra-consvervative government that doesn’t give two shits about anything other than resources extraction and pretending aboriginal populations don’t exist.
Uhhh no. The current government is a centre-left party not too dissimilar to the US Democrats.
They’re still fucking useless but at least they’re not dangerously incompetent like the last few right wing governments, or dangerously competent as the current opposition leader (who is an ex-cop) would be in power
They’re not getting deported. The senator who made that demand is on the fringe, doesn’t belong to any major party or group, and speaks for nobody but himself. He couldn’t have dialled up the histrionics any more if he’d actually tried.
It’s either that or a booting.
Y’all are fucking weird. When a right winger makes comments encouraging violence, you denounce it and demand that person face the consequences of their actions. But the Trump assassination attempt has revealed to me that a lot of you are just as reactionary as right wingers. Trump is a horrible person and the world would be better off without him, but if you can’t see why assassinating him is not only morally wrong, but also just a bad thing for anyone who has faith we can win the fight against fascism, then quite frankly you’ve lost the fucking plot.
Kyle went made a joke that condoned an assassination attempt hours after it happened. Literally everyone involved, including Jack Black, and Kyle himself realize that what he said was extremely inappropriate.
Literally everyone in the fucking world realizes that political assassinations are a bad thing, but y’all are over here in your bubble thinking it was totally justified because Trump is a horrible person.
Are you in favour of police brutality? Are you in favour of capital punishment? Why do you get to decide which violence is appropriate and which violence is inappropriate?
Seriously fucking annoyed with Lemmy’s user base right now.
Literally everyone in the fucking world realizes that political assassinations are a bad thing, but y’all are over here in your bubble thinking it was totally justified because Trump is a horrible person.
As someone who would have been glad he was dead, that’s not the entirety of the reasoning. Plenty of horrible people don’t deserve to be killed.
However, Trump is a specific type of “horrible person”. He’s one that is campaigning to be king for four years again (thanks to the supreme court and the toadies that make up congress), after having just fucked up the entire country for four years and then trying to overthrow the government because he lost an election. This asshole not only evaded but also destroyed the system of any other type of justice he can face.
He’s extremely likely to bring down whatever is left of our democracy when he (seemingly inevitably) returns to power in around six months.
So, I don’t give a single fuck about his troubles.
EDIT: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
And there are very literally hundreds of thousands of people who are dead because of him and his intentional choices to choose politics over public health in a deadly pandemic. When I saw the news I thought, while it could just be someone acting politically, there are also a lot of people who lost cherished family members to his actions and now see him not only not seeing any consequences, but on the path to do it all again. I’m surprised this is the first serious attempt, frankly.
It wasn’t too long ago that right wingers were marching the streets in the state of Victoria, calling for the then-Premier to be hanged. One woman who later got elected to the Victorian parliament said she wouldn’t rest until she saw him hanging from the end of a rope.
Guess who didn’t oppose those calls for violence? The same people who got their knickers in a twist over this one, that’s right.
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Removed, assassination apologist.
Lmfao happily. Hope we get a two for one
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Removed, advocating violence.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say they are trying to cancel Tenacious D…
The idiocy is that the same people who normally advocate for freedom of speech and freedom of consequences, who oppose what they call ‘cancel culture’, and who think that you should be able to say anything you want, who don’t believe that words have impact - they’re the exact same people who are getting all hot under the collar over this, and are more than happy for this particular speech to have consequences.
You can’t have it any which way. I don’t condone what Kyle Gas’s said, but it’s interesting if not disturbing to see who’s the loudest in advocating for severe consequences.
Read up a bit about Ralph Babet and you’ll see what a massive hypocrite the guy is.
Oh no political violence is so bad!
Go tell that the bombed out kids in Afghanistan and to all the innocents from all over the world. Cry me a river, cause I won’t shed a tear over a self proclaimed wannabe dictator. You get what you sow.
The point here is not that this comment hurts trump in some way. But that it hurts democracy. It favors violence over reason.
Many believe that the world might be better if trump was dead, but on the other side, if assassination is an acceptable solution to politics then democracy is destroyed.
The people that are against Trump are also against fascism. And supporting his murder is contradictory and essentially hurts your own cause.
Choosing to be fair and respectful to your enemy is the best course of action. Even though it might be extremely frustrating.
I don’t trust neoliberal democracy. It has killed far too many innocents all across the world, so I personally don’t care, but I understand if others do.
Meanwhile in Gaza
Wait until trump gets in.
I might not be a fascist, but I will fight for your right to be one!
This is where we are at, we are doomed.
At least I’m a minority that will definitely be hunted first so I won’t get to suffer for long.
An armed minority is harder to oppress! Arm yourself and train. Don’t be a soft target for them.
Nah Babet’s party are closet fascists.
