The continued descension of Bill Burr

A group of high profile American comedians recently attended the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, which took place over two weeks in late September thru early October. Given that country's record of human rights abuses, such a move raised more than a few eyebrows, especially since the comedians attending the festival take such pride in their craft. What I mean by that is they enjoy the creative freedom to riff on any topic to the point where they righteously flip the bird to American cancel culture. 

But in a country like Saudi Arabia, such liberties aren't allowed. In fact, the performers (which included big names like Louis C.K., Dave Chapelle, Kevin Hart and Bill Burr), were downright censored. 

ARTIST shall not prepare or perform any material that may be considered to degrade, defame or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule:

• The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including its leadership, public figures, culture or people;

• The Saudi royal family, legal system, or government, and

• Any religion, religious tradition, religious figure or religious practice.

Look, I'm an unabashed capitalist. If you can have a nice payday sharing your craft with folks who rarely have an opportunity to indulge in your talent, then go for it. But the problem is when you rail on certain aspects of your homeland and then turn around and willingly take money from a country who exacerbate those traits you believe permeate America, you shouldn't be all that shocked when people view you as a hypocritical tool. 

Which brings me to Bill Burr. 

I have enjoyed Burr's comedy over the years simply because I've always been partial to entertainers who perform as if they have nothing to lose. But as I wrote about earlier this year, he seems to be following the pattern of Howard Stern and Jimmy Kimmel. That is big name entertainers putting forth bits where there are no sacred cows ultimately morphing into obnoxious woke scolds. Whether it's calling for literal extinction of billionaires or borderline justifying the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Burr has gone from his trademark ranting to unhinged. But if he genuinely believes that such people are immoral because of how they accumulated their wealth, then the obvious question is how can Burr accept money from a collective (i.e. Saudi royalty) which clearly didn't become rich by wholesome methods? 

Needless to say, ol' Billy Boy was put on the defensive when such hypocrisy was pointed out. 

During an interview on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast, Burr said he does not “give a f--- what all these phony f---ing people are saying.”

“The general consensus is, ‘How dare you go to that place and make those oppressed people laugh, you f---ing piece of shit. I can’t believe you went to that place. I can’t find it on a map, and this bot said I was upset about it so now I am,'” Burr said about the outrage over the festival. “It’s one thing to wear clothes made by sweatshop labor. It’s quite another to go to the factory and make ’em laugh. I can’t believe how much anger I had about this issue after it went viral.”

Yeah, you're the real victim here, Bill. And yeah, sure, your motivation was totally righteous, making oppressed people forget about their lives for bit. We'll go with it. 

Burr's screed on Conan's podcast may be dismissed as nothing more than his typical shtick where he rants at the world. But I gotta tell ya it definitely had a "thou protesteth too much methinks" vibe to it.

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