Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass (left) and Jack Black.
Jeff Hahn/Getty Images
Australian politicians have called for the comedy rock band Tenacious D, comprised of Jack Black and Kyle Gass, to be expelled from the country after the band’s members made comments about the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.
In footage widely shared on social media on Sunday, Black and “the robot” presented Gus with a birthday cake while Tenacious D was onstage in Sydney. In the footage, Black can be seen telling Gus to “make a wish” and then “don’t miss Trump next time” before Gus blew out the candles, drawing laughter and applause from the Sydney crowd.
United Australia Party leader Senator Ralph Babette took to social media on Monday night to call for Tenacious D’s deportation over their bad joke. In a media release, Senator Babette insisted Glass’s comments were not a joke and called on Australia’s Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to “cancel their visas”.
Babette added that “any action short of deportation would be an excuse for the shooting and assassination attempt against Donald J. Trump.”
Tenacious D still have four shows remaining on their Australian tour, including shows in Newcastle, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide.
Senator Babette has previously criticised censorship. In February, she was at the centre of a political storm in Australia after re-sharing shocking footage of a stabbing attack. The Australian government ordered X (formerly Twitter) to remove the video, saying it was violent and distressing.
After an Australian court reaffirmed an injunction preventing the posting of the stabbing footage, a defiant Babette tweeted the graphic footage twice to her X account. “Without free speech our country will perish,” she later tweeted.
