Newsmax's Greg Kelly cites ChatGPT to defend remarks about Puerto Rico at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally
“Now, if you ask ChatGPT ... it can be seen as a satirical commentary on the neglect or mistreatment Puerto Rico has historically faced, especially following serious weather events”
Published
Citation From the October 28, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
GREG KELLY (HOST): Alright, just a couple of other things from the rally. You heard about this comedian, the controversial comedian? I thought he was actually pretty good. I mean, one or two things weren't so hot, but this was definitely funny.
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KELLY: That's good stuff. His name is Tony Hinchcliffe. Politically incorrect? Sure. Bold? Sure. Not liberal? OK. I thought this was great too.
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KELLY: Yeah, they liked it when he made fun of the left. When he made fun of Puerto Rico it was — alright. But this one I thought was well within bounds.
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KELLY: It's funny. That is the essence of humor. I'm totally OK with it. Now, this is the big controversial line, the one about Puerto Rico that did not go over so well in the room, I'll add. There were people groaning when he actually made this joke, which, yeah, wasn't the best.
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KELLY: You see the room reacted negatively to the slam on Puerto Rico, but it's possible that not everybody — I didn't really get the joke, but there's something to it. Let's see.
Did you know that there's a great big island of garbage in the Pacific Ocean? And it's been a thing for a long time. Yeah, we actually have a picture of it. It's been floating around out there for a long time. In fact, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now so huge and permanent that a coastal ecosystem is thriving on it, according to scientists.
Now, if you ask ChatGPT, you know what they say to this joke that he made? The joke, while intended to be humorous, is a form of satire based on a mix-up between environmental issues and political commentary. It plays on the fact that there is a massive garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean, a well-known environmental concern — not by everybody — by suggesting that Puerto Rico, a US Territory, is a floating island of garbage, it can be seen as a satirical commentary on the neglect or mistreatment Puerto Rico has historically faced, especially following serious weather events.
I'm alright. I think we'll be OK. You know, if he referred to San Francisco as Garbage City, I think everybody would kind of be OK with that, right? Everybody would understand. Puerto Rico has gone through some very, very hard times. They've been lagging economically for an incredibly long period of time. And take a look at this, if you don't mind, from the Council on Foreign Relations, Puerto Rico continues to be ravaged by a sustained recession. Annual economic growth fell by roughly 12.5% overall between 2004 and 2020, while Puerto Rico's population shrunk by more than 16%. That is a crisis. I think, maybe, he was just — it's a joke.