Hasan Piker mocks Charlie Kirk’s death while dressed up like Chairman Mao

Piker appeared at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco on August 21 as part of the opening night of the West Coast run of Fear&Live. The live show featured Piker alongside fellow Fear& hosts Will Neff, QTCinderella, and Austin Show.

During the performance, Piker sang “We Are Charlie Kirk,” a presumably AI-generated gospel-style song "honoring" the slain Turning Point USA founder. The song began circulating following Kirk’s assassination and has subsequently been used by left-wing users to mock Kirk and his supporters.

Video from the event showed Piker singing along as the song’s lyrics appeared on the screen in a karaoke-style format. While singing, Piker was dressed in an outfit resembling a Maoist-style uniform.

Piker also posted a photograph from the event with the caption, “carried the flame tn,” a reference to a lyric from the song.

The performance comes as Piker remains a controversial figure on the far-left. He has faced longstanding criticism for inflammatory comments about political violence.

He has defended Stalin and Mao and said that America “deserved” 9/11. He has also previously called for his audience to kill Republican Senator Rick Scott, and has advocated for streets to “soak” in “red capitalist blood.”

More recently, Piker has actively supported left-wing candidates in Democratic primaries, particularly ones backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. After several candidates he endorsed won in New York, Piker tried to downplay his past rhetoric.

"I wish they'd stop calling me a terrorist. That's what I wish. I wish they'd stop calling me a radical. None of these people are radical,” he said. “They just want healthcare.”

Earlier this month, the University of Washington announced that it had canceled a planned January 2027 lecture featuring Piker. The university said that after Piker was announced as a speaker for its 2026-27 series, officials reviewed the event and “It was determined that the process for organizing this event did not meet the necessary level of rigor for University-hosted events in the Speaker Series.”