Arizona Republic
Comedian George Lopez cracked jokes about Mexicans during a campaign rally for Kamala Harris in Phoenix last Saturday, but his comments didn't cause the same political backlash as jokes about Puerto Rico and Latinos made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at a Donald Trump rally in New York the same weekend.
Some Trump supporters are calling the muted reaction generated by the Lopez jokes compared to the outrage ignited by the Hinchliffe comments a double standard. Others point out there is a difference between a Latino making jokes about his own people and a non-Latino making jokes that sound more like hate speech.
At the campaign rally for Harris at Trevor G. Browne High School in a predominantly Latino area on the west side of Phoenix, Lopez suggested Mexicans might steal materials before Trump had a chance to build his promised border wall.
"Enough lies," Lopez said. "Donald Trump said he was going to build the wall, and George Lopez said, 'You better build it in one day because if you leave that material out there overnight.'" Lopez then looked around the stage dramatically as if to suggest the materials had been stolen.
Lopez, who is of Mexican descent, followed up with a second joke suggesting Mexicans are poor at math.
Trump "also said he was going to get Mexico to pay for the wall," Lopez said. "I wish he would have asked me. We can't even split a check at a restaurant, but you know."
The diverse crowd appeared to laugh at both jokes before Lopez went on to declare his support for Harris, calling her "the real deal."
In contrast, Hinchliffe made several jokes about Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, and Latinos at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday that ignited an immediate political backlash that some say could cost Trump votes among Puerto Rican and Latino voters considered crucial to winning battleground states with large Latino populations, such as Pennsylvania and Arizona.
"There is literally a floating island of garbage floating in the ocean right now," Hinchcliffe joked. "I think it's called Puerto Rico."
Hinchcliffe also joked that "Latinos love making babies" and that he welcomes migrants to the U.S. "with open arms, and by open arms, I mean like this."
Hinchcliffe then waved his hands while mouthing the words, "No. No. Go back."
Grammy-winning singer Bad Bunny announced his support for Haris in response to Hinchcliffe's jokes about Puerto Rico, and several other high-profile Puerto Ricans also have expressed their outrage.
"Thankfully, my sweet abuelita wasn’t here to hear that disgusting remark. But if she was alive today, I think she would say, ‘Tony Hinchcliffe, go (expletive) yourself,’" said actor Aubrey Plaza at the Wall Street Journal Magazine 2024 Innovator Awards event on Wednesday in New York City.
What's the difference between the comedians and their jokes?
The Trump campaign has sought to distance itself from Hinchliffe's comments following the uproar that has included protests by Puerto Rican supporters in Philadelphia, New York and Chicago.
"It was a comedian who made a joke in poor taste. Obviously, that joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or our campaign," Trump 2024 national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on the program, "Fox & Friends."
But some Trump supporters see a double standard.
"Absolutely," said Gretchen Patterson, 59, a Phoenix resident who was born and raised in Puerto Rico.
Patterson, who identifies as conservative and cast an early ballot for Trump-Vance, said she was not offended by Hinchliffe's joke about Puerto Rico. She believes the comments have been misinterpreted and blown out of proportion.
Hinchliffe, Patterson said she believes, was referring to Puerto Rico's mounting trash crisis caused by dwindling landfill space, not the Puerto Rican people.
"The joke was not about the people. The joke was about the garbage issue the island has," Patterson said. She's glad Hinchcliffe's comments are drawing attention to the trash issue and some of the other problems the island is facing.
"Do you want to get offended, or do you want to say, 'Good, shed some light and let's figure it out what we need ... to rectify the problem that is happening right now,'" Patterson said.
She also wondered why so many people were offended by Hinchliffe's jokes at a Trump rally and not by Lopez's jokes at a Harris rally.
If people were offended by Hinchcliffe's jokes, they should also be offended by Lopez's comments, regardless of whether one is Latino and the other is not, she said.
"It's either all of it is wrong, or none of it is," Patterson said. "Because what Lopez implied is that Mexicans are thieves, and that is an insult to the Mexican community because that is not true. I know some of the most honest people in the Mexican community, so to call everybody thieves is just not right."
Francisco Pedraza, a politics professor and associate director of the Center for Latina/os and American Politics Research at Arizona State University, said he does not believe the jokes are comparable because Lopez was using humor to unify people while Hinchliffe was using humor to divide.
"George Lopez is not cracking his jokes to define who belongs in America," Pedraza said. "He's saying you are a part of the American polity. Be better." Whereas the spirit of Tony Hinchcliffe, he said, paired with Trump's negative comments about immigrants, is disparaging towards Latinos, Puerto Ricans, and Mexican-Americans. "The undertone is we don't want you here. That's the difference."
That is why Lopez's jokes about Mexicans didn't elicit the same political backlash as the jokes about Puerto Rico and Latinos by Hinchcliffe, Pedraza said.
"George Lopez, he is delivering these jokes from a place that clearly he's signaled is out of love, respect and compassion for his community," Pedraza said.
The Trump campaign understands that Hinchcliffe's comments are likely to cost Trump votes and that is why the campaign has tried to distance themselves from the comments, Pedraza said.
"They know that it comes from a place where the aim is to exclude these people on the basis of a trait or a feature that is out of their control," Pedraza said. "It's not equivalent."
César Fierros, communications director at Living United for Change in Arizona, an advocacy group that works to increase voter participation by Latinos, said he does not believe Lopez's jokes will hurt the Harris campaign.
"If anything using Lopez as a surrogate is a great way to connect with Latino voters in AZ that adore his comedy, especially among older Latino voters," Fierros said in an email.
"On the other hand," Fierros said, "Hinchcliffe's comments explicitly targeted a community in a way that left an arena full of Trump supporters shocked, not amused. His words were unmistakably aimed at Puerto Ricans, and the audience's reaction was an audible gasp rather than laughter. I think that reflects how off-base and offensive it was."
Some voter campaigns are already using Hinchcliffe's comments to try and erode Trump's support among Latino males, who prefer Trump at higher rates than Latinos in general.
The Working Families Party plans to send 100,000 text messages on Thursday aimed at Latino males, said Matthew Marquez, the group's Arizona campaign director.
"We're going to shine some light on what was said around Puerto Rico," Marquez said. "If he attacks one Latino community, he is essentially attacking all our Latino communities."
Still, some Latinos were put off by Lopez's jokes about Mexicans.
"It's never a good idea to reinforce stereotypes — no matter who delivers the punchline," said Phoenix City Councilman Carlos Galindo-Elvira, who has attended Harris campaign events. "The consequences of the presidential election are far too serious for Latinos and all Americans."
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund, a nonprofit political advocacy group, said the attention being placed on jokes by comedians is distracting from larger issues that will impact Latinos.
"It's a sad state of affairs when we are looking at what comedians have to say in determining who we should vote for as the leader of the free world," Garcia said. "Rather than focusing on humor, or even inappropriate humor, we should focus instead on what is being said by the candidates themselves."
For instance, Garcia said, Trump has promised to carry out the largest deportation in the nation's history.
"I don't think he's joking, I don't think he's kidding when he says that," Garcia said.
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