The episode features Tony Hinchcliffe, creator and host of Kill Tony, performing at the second annual All-In holiday party in San Francisco with hosts Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg (Chamath Palihapitiya was absent).

Hinchcliffe delivers an extended roast of the hosts, San Francisco, and various political figures before discussing Kill Tony's meteoric rise to become the number two podcast on YouTube.

The conversation covers Hinchcliffe's journey from sleeping in his car behind the Comedy Store for $300/month rent to signing a four-special Netflix deal and selling out Madison Square Garden three times.

The hosts then perform their own Kill Tony-style sets, with Sacks delivering roast jokes, Friedberg attempting stand-up about agriculture and GMOs, and Calacanis doing material about his podcast success.

The episode concludes with the annual Bestie Awards, where hosts select biggest business winners and losers, political winners and losers, breakthroughs of the year, CEOs of the year, and 'disgraziads' (most disgraceful moments).

Kill Tony's Rise from Comedy Store to YouTube Dominance

Kill Tony ranked number two on YouTube for 2024, behind only Joe Rogan's podcast. 'We ranked number two at the end of the year on YouTube. Behind my very best friend Joe Rogan' - Tony. The show secured an unprecedented four-special deal with Netflix.

The show originated from Hinchcliffe hosting open mics at the Comedy Store, where he would roast comedians after their three-minute sets. 'I would go up after each comedian did three minutes and make fun of them' - Tony. Co-host Redband initially questioned the concept: 'wait, what? Who the fuck is going to want to watch an open mic?'

During the pandemic, Kill Tony was the only podcast with a live audience that went dark. The show adapted by having people send in one-minute video sets, which the hosts would watch and then Zoom with the comedians. 'We lacked fucking vitamin D. We were used to having the instant gratification' - Tony.

The bucket system remains completely democratic - any comedian can put their name in for a chance to perform. Dedrick Flynn, who recently became a regular and went to SNL, put his name in the bucket for 39 weeks straight before getting pulled. 'He moved to Austin. 39 weeks in a row, and he was just about to stop trying' - Tony.

The LA to Austin Migration and Comedy's Geography

Hinchcliffe lived in LA for almost 20 years before moving to Austin. Early in his career, he paid $400/month to rent a couch in a living room with four comedians total, later downgraded to $300/month for a bean bag on the ground when he couldn't afford the couch.

After the bean bag period, Hinchcliffe slept in the back seat of his car parked in the Hollywood Hills behind the Comedy Store. 'Juan Carlos, the maintenance man there that would show up at like 4 or 5 a.m., was nice enough to wait a few hours to try to let me get a few extra hours of sleep before he would start nailing shit' - Tony.

The move to Austin happened after California 'completely mishandle[d] the pandemic and let police take such a terrible hit during the George Floyd riots.' The entire Kill Tony crew relocated, including Shane Gillis, Matt McCusker, and Tom Segura.

Austin now has the best comedy scene in the world, according to Hinchcliffe. 'There's no question about it. It's Austin, Texas' - Tony. The Mothership in Austin regularly has lines of 200-300 people on the street just to see where the show happens.

Kill Tony's recent European tour in June was 'the worst Kill Tony in the history of our existence' - Tony. The comedians were terrible, the food was bad, and 'there's just this never-ending gloom in London.' The show will only return to Europe if offered 'Buckingham Palace.'

Madison Square Garden Rally and Fake News Fallout

Hinchcliffe performed at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally, which he accepted primarily because 'I was just excited to feel the magic of Madison Square Garden again' - Tony. He had already sold out MSG three times for Kill Tony shows.

The Puerto Rico joke controversy was manufactured by mainstream media who 'weren't gambling on the fact because I'm not mainstream' - Tony. A simple Google search would show 'I have the most diverse comedy show in the world.'

The controversy actually helped Trump's campaign with a '20% Puerto Rican increase in the state of Pennsylvania' - Tony. Puerto Ricans 'have an unbelievable sense of humor' and saw through the media narrative.

Hinchcliffe believes the incident showed 'this is the party with a sense of humor' while Democrats 'had Glorilla shaking her ass and like everyone's pretending like that's cool, but that's not cool' - Tony.

Free Speech Battles: YouTube, Europe, and Content Gatekeepers

YouTube's content policies change constantly and unpredictably. 'A black guy right now is only allowed to say the N-word two or three times per minute, but they're not very clear' - Tony. Netflix, by contrast, tells comedians 'do whatever you want, go as hard as you want, push it to the limit' - Tony.

Age restrictions on YouTube are a major problem for Kill Tony. 'Who the hell wants to log in to their stuff? I mean, you dorks do, but real people don't want to' - Tony. The restrictions hit during the first hour and a half when most viewers watch.

During the Biden administration, demonetization increased on a weekly basis. 'It felt like every week there's some new category of thought and expression that you couldn't say' - Tony. The trend shifted after 'Elon bought Twitter. And that was the first event that shifted the momentum' - Tony.

Europe arrested over 3,000 people in the UK for 'malicious communication,' with 84,000 politically motivated communications crimes in Germany and 6,000 hate crimes based on speech in France. One UK case involved someone going to jail 'for calling a convicted rapist a pig' - Friedberg.

California's SB 771 hate speech bill would have allowed government administrators to determine what constitutes hate speech. Gavin Newsom vetoed it, which Friedberg praised despite criticisms of Newsom on other issues.

Bestie Awards: Business Winners and Losers

Alphabet won biggest business winner from multiple hosts. The company grew from $2 trillion to $4 trillion market cap in 2024, adding $10 billion in market value every single day. 'That's $170 billion gain, $10 billion market cap gain every day' - Friedberg.

Google's AI pivot succeeded despite predictions they would 'get killed by ChatGPT' - Calacanis. They integrated AI into search, combined it with Google.com's massive user base, and 'suddenly they're crushing chat GPT' - Sacks.

Construction workers related to the data center boom won from Sacks. 'They're seeing their wages go up 25 to 30 percent. We're talking about plumbers, electricians, drywall hangers, concrete pours' - Sacks. Master electricians now make $500,000 per year.

Universities won biggest business loser. 'The margin of Americans who now believe that college is worth the cost has gone from plus 13 a decade ago to minus 30' - Sacks. Public perception has completely flipped on higher education's value.

Warner Brothers Discovery lost from Friedberg because 'the MA deal is being done at three times the value that this thing's been trading at for the last couple of years' - Friedberg. This showed how badly management underutilized valuable content assets.

Bestie Awards: Political Winners, Breakthroughs, and Disgraziads

David Sacks won biggest political winner from Friedberg for ensuring 'America would be absolutely competitive in the AI race, the most important race of our lifetime and in fact in humanity' - Friedberg.

Crypto won from Sacks as political winner. 'A year ago, there was a war on crypto. They were worried about going to jail. Now we've passed legislation. We're getting a fair shake from the government. It's a total change' - Sacks.

Europe won biggest political loser from Sacks. 'It's a civilization that's in decline. They're losing economically, geopolitically, socially, culturally, and they can't seem to reverse that trend' - Sacks.

Asteroid Bennu discovery won breakthrough of the year from Friedberg. NASA found nucleic acids, amino acids, and sugars on the asteroid. 'All of the building blocks of life were found on this asteroid floating through space' - Friedberg. The asteroid has been floating for 4.5 billion years.

Jensen Huang won CEO of the year (not named Elon Musk) by consensus. NVIDIA grew from $300 billion to $4.5 trillion market cap in 36 months. 'That's $100 billion every month for three years straight' - Friedberg. Huang built for 33 years before the AI flywheel took off.

Stanford's disability accommodation abuse won disgraziad from Sacks. '50% of students at Stanford say they're disabled' to get unproctored tests and extra time. 'There's no grades anymore, and everyone sort of claims to be disabled in order to get special advantages' - Sacks.