It’s been a fuckin week for Tenacious D and one half of its founding members, Kyle Gass. After making an admittedly dark joke about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life, he’s since been dropped by his talent agency and the band are on an indefinite hiatus. It’s not been a great time, truth be told.
After playing a show in Sydney, Australia on his 64th birthday, the band’s counterpoint to Jack Black was presented with a birthday cake. While blowing out the candles, he jokingly wished that the next would-be assassin “don’t miss Trump next time.”
The comment was in reference to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life that took place the very same day in Butler, Pennsylvania. Though clips show Black laughing at the comment and shrugging it off, he quickly distanced himself from the band in a post on social media, stating that he was “blindsided” and that “all future creative plans are on hold.”
In the initial aftermath of his comments, Gass posted the following apology on his social media:
“The line I improvised onstage Sunday night in Sydney was highly inappropriate, dangerous and a terrible mistake. I don’t condone violence of any kind, in any form, against anyone. What happened was a tragedy, and I’m incredibly sorry for my severe lack of judgement. I profoundly apologize to those I’ve let down and truly regret any pain I’ve caused.”
While he may have felt remorse at the time (or was meeting a contractual obligation of some kind), that apology has since been deleted from his Instagram page.
Now, I’m making any assumptions about why the post was deleted, but let’s be fuckin’ rear for once. If there’s any side in American politics that makes light of political violence and threatens it on a regular basis, it’s the right. There are far too many instances of that sort of behavior on the right to take their belly-aching seriously. It’s all “comics aren’t allowed to say anything these days” until someone makes a joke about the guy they like.
Anyways, it’s real interesting that something as important as his statement on the matter is now gone just days after the shitstorm.