In all his years of Kung Fu Panda, Jack Black has never faced a fight quite like this.
At the Tenacious D concert in Sydney on Sunday night, Black paused the set halfway through to wish his bandmate Kyle Gass a happy 64th birthday.
The Metal, a 7-foot transformer-like character carried out a cake.
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Black urged Gass to “make a wish”.
Just before blowing out the candles, he replied, “Don’t miss Trump next time”.
I’ve spoken to Tenacious D fans who were there. Some in the 9000-strong crowd cheered. Others laughed, nervously. They knew instantly that it was not OK to make such a comment on the very day the former President had faced a barrage of bullets, and thankfully survived.
Ever since that moment on Sunday morning our time, when we got first word that there had been a shooting at a Trump Rally, the tone of American politics changed. The fire-brand language used by both sides for years was dialled right back. Both Republicans and Democrats condemned the violence.
The next day, the President used a rare Oval Office speech to address the nation; “A former President was shot. An American citizen was killed, while simply exercising the freedom to support the candidate of his choosing. We cannot — we must not — go down this road in America”.
Yet even Joe Biden had to defend the use of the word ‘bullseye’ in relation to focusing on Donald Trump politically.
In a country where Members of Congress have been shot, the House Speaker’s husband attacked with a hammer, and thousands stormed the Capital building during the Jan 6 riots, words matter, and violence can be a very real possibility when the right people say the wrong things.
In a statement on Instagram, Black said he was ‘blindsided’ by the comments at the concert. His reaction on the night was not as immediate.
He later wrote, “I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form” but he didn’t correct Gass or mention it again for the rest of the show.
Gass also issued a statement saying it was “a severe lack of judgement”.
He wrote: “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 as a tragedy, and I’m incredibly sorry”.
The damage was already done.
The Tenacious D concert in Newcastle was initially postponed and then cancelled. The rest of the tour to Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide was quickly shelved and fans offered refunds.
United Australia Senator Ralph Babet called for the band to be departed.
He needn’t have bothered.
Jack Black left Australia long before he could be kicked out.
He’s already back in Hollywood trying to salvage his acting and singing career amidst a political storm.
