Tony Hinchcliffe has built his career on being untouchable, the guy who can say anything and brush off any backlash with a smirk. That image has taken a real hit lately. His latest stand-up special landed to such poor reviews that even longtime supporters admitted it fell flat, and the fallout opened the door for a much closer look at where his material actually comes from.
What people found was a pattern of lifted jokes stretching back years, and it’s clearly gotten under his skin more than he lets on. According to sources, the clearest case involves comedian Chelby Morgan who performed a joke on Hinchcliffe’s open-mic show.
She said, “For me, using a [ ] is a lot like giving a hand job. Like most women, I’m not very good at it, and I would really rather just put it in my mouth.”
Months later, Hinchcliffe told a nearly identical bit in his own special. He said, “Just got my first gun. It’s like having a second [ ]. I know, cuz the first thing I did when I got it home is I put it in my mouth.”
Morgan later said she found out through fans in her comments rather than from him directly, adding, “I think that he’s got bigger [ ] going on and that he doesn’t care, and his fans don’t care cuz they’re in my comments not caring.”
That wasn’t an isolated incident. A decade earlier, Norm Macdonald publicly accused Hinchcliffe of lifting a grave-digging bit for his 2016 special, a special Netflix eventually pulled from its library. Norm posted on social media asking Joe Rogan to vouch for the comic who allegedly took his material.
Rogan defended his friend, writing, “Norm, Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke is completely different. They’re just about the same subject. He is not a thief.”
Once the two bits were played side by side, the similarity was hard to miss. Norm’s own reply since deleted, made clear he wasn’t buying the defense either.
Despite all this, Hinchcliffe hasn’t exactly softened. Behind-the-scenes footage from his show recently caught him scolding a regular Timmy No Brakes (real name Tim Stiefler) for bringing two friends into the green room.
Tony snapped, “You got enough liquid, you think? What are you doing?” and later needling him with, “Do you have enough Red Bull, though? What are they, sober?”
