Kyle Gass, the co-founder of Tenacious D alongside Jack Black, issued an apology after he wished for a second assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Tenacious D at “Rock am Ring” in 2016 : Thomas Jacob “Jack” Black (right) and Kyle Richard Gass. Photo Credit: Sven Mandel, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Gass’ comments came during Tenacious D’s Spicy Meatball Tour in Sydney, Australia following an assassination attempt against President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The assassin’s bullet failed to kill President Trump, but pierced his ear. While he failed to assassinate President Trump, he did strike down Corey Comperatore, who used his body to shield his wife and daughter who were at the rally with him.
The assassin also wounded David Dutch and James Copenhaver according to Pennsylvania State Police.
This video makes me furious. UNHUMANS did this!! pic.twitter.com/Io799XbNdn
— Tanya Tay Posobiec ☦️ (@realTanyaTay) July 13, 2024
During the Tenacious D show the band celebrated Gass’ birthday with Black singing “Happy Birthday” and a birthday cake being delivered by a man in a robot costume.
Black then informs Gass to make a wish. Gass then states, “Don’t miss Trump next time.” Much of the crowd begins laughing and chuckling. The video concludes with Black saying, “Thank you.”
Tenacious D “Don’t miss miss Trump next time”
These people are sick and want you dead pic.twitter.com/3qaVioquGu
— 🌴 Josh Lekach 🌴 (@JoshLekach) July 15, 2024
Another angle of the performance shows Black laughing after Gass’ comments.
Pure evil. Leave Australia IMMEDIATELY pic.twitter.com/pnTtnMDQbN
— Clown Down Under 🤡 (@clowndownunder) July 16, 2024
Black issued a statement on Instagram this morning. He wrote, “I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday. I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form.”
He added, “After much reflection, I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour, and all future creative plans are on hold. I am grateful to the fans for their support and understanding.”
Jack Black on Instagram
Gass issued his own statement and apology on Instagram as well, “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.”
Kyle Gass on Instagram
The sincerity of these statements has been called into question. X user RobProvince shared, “Let me explain to people who have never worked a concert venue before…. After Jack Black & his band Tenacious D celebrated the near assassination of Trump on Saturday they got about 10,000 calls and texts from all the concert venues they’d booked canceling their reservations. You see these places have to carry insurance to cover any mass casualty event. Some places it’s literally the law they have to have a certain level of coverage.”
Let me explain to people who have never worked a concert venue before….
After Jack Black & his band Tenacious D celebrated the near assassination of Trump on Saturday they got about 10,000 calls and texts from all the concert venues they’d booked canceling their reservations.… pic.twitter.com/5FPaGezgK1
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) July 16, 2024
“That insurance is very very expensive as you can imagine as you can be talking about 1000’s of people and potential liability. Insurance companies will even ask you to take out additional insurance for a specific event over and above the base insurance the venue carries
That insurance is very very expensive as you can imagine as you can be talking about 1000’s of people and potential liability. Insurance companies will even ask you to take out additional insurance for a specific event over and above the base insurance the venue carries
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) July 16, 2024
Next, he questioned, “So what do you think happened the second Jack Black and Company said this? Threat levels went off the charts. Phone calls to the concert venues, texts, emails, social media posts. All hell broke lose and there was no way in f*** these venues could afford the level of security these insurers were now wanting or could afford the new insurance bill they were going to be asked to pay.”
“So no… Jack Blacks heart didn’t magically grow 3 sizes that day. He didn’t have any self reflection. He didn’t suddenly have a moral compass. He got his tour cancelled. He lost money. Won’t be getting on stage high on the good weed and shrooms and jamming with his buddies for millions of dollars and fans fanning his ago. He will fly back from Australia and sit in his mansion getting high feeling incredibly put upon to have to pretend to have morals,” he concluded.
So no… Jack Blacks heart didn’t magically grow 3 sizes that day. He didn’t have any self reflection. He didn’t suddenly have a moral compass.
He got his tour cancelled. He lost money. Won’t be getting on stage high on the good weed and shrooms and jamming with his buddies for…
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) July 16, 2024
Former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern also shared his thoughts, “I can tell you what is happening here, but most aren’t ready to hear it. The majority of people don’t actually have their own opinions (or rather, convictions). They only express what is deemed popular or acceptable according to the overton window of acceptable discourse.”
He continued, “What is happening is a ‘Great Recalibration’ of that window. For years we were told it was acceptable to have political violence on the left (‘Mostly peaceful riots.’) and that anything on the right, a punch, simple words, okay symbols, walking into a building, was ultra violent. The media and celebrities lead this narrative, and cemented the Overton window firmly in their preferred direction.”
Mark Kern via Sodapoppin YouTube
READ: ‘Smite’ Ambassador Encourages Another Assassination Attempt Against President Donald Trump
“The vast majority of people complied,” he noted. “The social pact demands it. It whipped them into mob mentality, and people did really mean things to each other (cancel culture, etc.) because it was acceptable and approved by the narrative. (sound like the rise of some country’s political movement you know from history?). This is how good people turn into bad people.”
“But after the actual, visceral failures [of] the Biden debate, that window began to shift. No amount of cognitive bias could prevent people from going ‘this is weird, we’ve been lied to.’ (Covid revelations helped too) It came acceptable for people, for the first time in a long time, to question the narrative,” he posited. “They could now talk about it at the office, at home, in public and social media. That was not possible a month ago.”
“So when just 2 weeks later we had the attempted assassination of Trump (and people unfortunately lost their lives or were injured)…nothing squared up anymore. The ultimate violence was not from the Right, as they were told, but TO the Right,” he said.
(L-R): Plazir-15 Security Detail, the Duchess of Plazir-15 (Lizzo) and Captain Bombardier (Jack Black) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
Kern continued, “The deaths were real, the tragedy was real. Some people, unaware of the deaths (or slow to process the events), continued to reinforce the OLD Overton window. Now their co-workers and friends and family, free to question for the first time, reacted against them. The public and the media reacted against them. This is what happened to Kyle Glass and Jack Black here. They didn’t read the room, they didn’t catch what was happening to the window, and they fell outside of it. The backlash was swift and harsh and not just from the right, but from people in their immediate circle…even the media.”
“There are some who really do believe the assassination was faked or justified, that Trump really is the big H of our times,” he stated. “These are the radicals who have been yanking at the Overton window for years, and who, until now, have successfully skewed and skewered it to their side. They are the ones who are not apologizing, not deleting, not retracting and still gnashing their teeth. They are the ones that wrecked things for a long time. These people are unredeemable and we should never forgive them for what they did to our country and much of the world, for they truly are destructive and violent and not really part of the social pact.”
Jack Black. Photo Credit: Renan Katayama, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
He then said, “But here is the part most aren’t ready to hear: The majority of people aren’t those people. They look like them, sound like them, hated like them, and even did some very bad things…but they were told to, programmed to. Again, most people do not have their own strong moral core or opinions. The survival instinct of civilization tells them to just go with the flow, even when that flow has been hijacked for bad purposes.”
“That hard part? You’re going to have to forgive them,” he said. “To heal as a country and a nation, you have to let these people change their minds. They will go from saying horrible things and even doing them, to wherever we are headed next. Hopefully, that next is peace and unity and gradual abandonment of the current woke policies that have so divided us and damaged us as a nation. That historical country I mentioned earlier? Or others you know? They all changed too.”
“Most people aren’t ready to hear that yet, but I suspect this is where Trump is headed and maybe after his speech, more will see it. But until then, this is why I and others are very loudly pointing out people falling outside the moving overton window and still espousing hate. Some are radicals and some are the masses. I don’t want anyone cancelled or fired. But I want the window to shift. Shift back away from the Abyss. That is why we have to point it out every time, especially now, when we have a chance to change that we haven’t had in a very, very long time,” Grummz concluded.
Kyle Glass of Tenacious D apologizes.
I can tell you what is happening here, but most aren’t ready to hear it.
The majority of people don’t actually have their own opinions (or rather, convictions). They only express what is deemed popular or acceptable according to the overton… pic.twitter.com/POpB52wJCi
— Grummz (@Grummz) July 16, 2024
What do you make of Black and Gass’ apologies?
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