Jack Black axes tour over bandmate's Trump comment
bbc.com
Jack Black has said he’s cancelled the rest of the Tenacious D world tour after his bandmate Kyle Gass sparked an outcry with a comment about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
The comedy rock group were on stage in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday when Gass was asked to make a wish after being presented with a cake for his 64th birthday.
He appeared to reply: "Don’t miss Trump next time."
Gass also split with his agent following the incident.
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I don't think the comment was appropriate but I also don't think it was really necessary to cancel the tour over it. It was a joke made in poor taste. Worth an apology? Sure. But this seems like an overreaction.
It's worth a super sarcastic apology.
The fact they cancelled the tour and that he split with his manager, makes me believe it wasn't that harmonic anymore and it was the final straw.
If not, I agree it was a massive overreaction.
Inciting violence is not appropriate, but he could've easily just said he should've kept it to himself and move on.
Maybe he feels he can't be a showman and be all fun when democracy is at stake.
It's noteworthy that it doesn't appear black canceled the tour just out of nowhere. I think they were getting pressure from the government based on what I've read.
Nah that was just one senator from a rogue far right party that likes to get attention by making ridiculous statements.
They do not represent the government and are not in a position to apply pressure.
Not like I understand Australian politics but one senator could be an influence.
"could be" is doing some heavy lifting there.
Yes one senator can be an influence in very specific and unusual circumstances. Not in this case.
How could you know this so definitively?
I guess it's just the australian political landscape, which I don't expect you to care about very much, suffice to say this guy is pretty far removed from the people who can actually make decisions or exert influence about who can be in Australia.
He's a senator. No one in the senate has any formal interactions which the executive branch like immigration personnel.
He was part of a party called United Australia Party which was a far right protest party. I say was because he was the only candidate that got any traction and his party was disbanded.
He only got elected because he received a bunch of "preferences" from another party that didn't quite get enough votes to win the seat.
All of this means that formally his only job is to make comments about proposed laws. He does vote on laws but he's not part of a bloq so no one cares about his vote. Informally it means he doesn't have any capital - he's a barely tolerated pariah. Next election he will be lost to the passage of time.
His only play is to make headlines by making outlandish assertions, like "JB should be deported", to increase his brand recognition when he inevitably retires from politics to pursue a lucrative career in financial planning or some such.
Interesting. I had no idea, thanks for the in depth explanation. So in this case it probably played no or very little role. Things are just often more murky than we make them seem when commenting online is more the general idea I was trying to convey.
From which government? The Aussies?
And the person who owns all the media in both those countries
Yes. Apparently a single senator from the above users comment.
People keep acting like Jack Black is punishing Kyle for being offensive, rather than trying to avoid a mass shooting at a Tenacious D concert after his bandmate endorsed political violence.
It's only in overreaction if you're not worried about your life, or the lives of your fans.
Australia is not the US
He's on tour and he cancelled everything until October.
From what I understand the next scheduled show in Ohio is still not a sure thing.