Rob Schneider isn’t changing his act despite being confronted with audience members “yelling” at him and, at one recent Canadian fundraiser, walking out.
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“I’m doing it right,” Schneider told The Hollywood Reporter when asked if those responses have made him think about doing anything differently. “The thing about free speech is, free speech is all speech. Free speech isn’t for the nice stuff. It isn’t for the socially acceptable stuff. Free speech is the speech that challenges you. Free speech is the not-nice stuff. Easy speech or speech that’s acceptable to everybody doesn’t need any protection. I’m there to challenge the audience.”
Speaking about Canada specifically, he claimed the country was “under a repressive regime where they call protesters terrorists.”
“I’m very proud that I didn’t bow to that dictatorship that [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau is doing, and I’m happy to be one of those people that pissed them off,” he added. “And I’ll do it again if I get the chance, but I don’t think they’ll let me in anytime soon.”
In June, Schneider was asked to leave the stage and cut his comedy set short after attendees began to walk out during a fundraiser for the Hospitals of Regina Foundation in Canada.
“We do not condone, accept, endorse or share Mr. Schneider’s positions, as expressed during his comedy set and acknowledge that in this instance the performance did not meet the expectations of our audience and our team,” the foundation said in a statement published by Canada’s Global News . “An unconditional apology was offered right after to our guests and our community. We reiterate this sincere and unconditional apology today, for any offense caused by Mr. Schneider’s recent comedy set, at the Four Seasons Ball.”
It was also reported that Schneider was pulled from a stand-up set at a GOP event in late 2023, but the Saturday Night Live alum denied he was removed from the stage after what witnesses characterized as lewd jokes.
Schneider is set to release a book about free speech, titled You Can Do It! Speak Your Mind, America on Sept. 24, which he carried with him on the red carpet at a New York screening for pal Adam Sandler’s Love You Netflix special, where he spoke to THR .
The Hot Chick star, who appears in Love You , said he supported people “challenging” him.
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“People get upset about things now. And that’s OK,” Schneider told THR . “I think the more challenging the comedy is and society is, the more interesting the stand-up and art is going to be. When everything’s smooth, art is boring. So the ’90s could have been kind of boring, but this is a good time now, and it’s a challenging time.”
As for how he ended up in Sandler’s special, Schneider said his longtime friend and fellow SNL alum just called him.
“Hey buddy, when can you come? For what? Just can you come out here?” Schneider recalled of his conversation with Sandler before “the next thing you know,” he was performing with him. “He always includes me. It’s a lovely thing.”
Schneider also praised Sandler’s comedy.
“He’s never been better as a stand-up,” he said of Sandler in Love You . “This is an intimate show because there aren’t 15,000, 20,000 people like last time. So in that sense you really get a glimpse of who he really is,” Schneider said.
Schneider has been criticized in recent years for his anti-vaccine views and controversial comments about transgender people as he’s continued to speak out against cancel culture and in support of free speech.
In a series of tweets in 2019, Schneider wrote, “I know Free Speech and Democracy create a mess out of society, people being able to express and spew whatever they want. But I can’t think of a better one. And I surely don’t want to live in a society where people decide for me what to think or watch or how I should interpret it. … I worry more that the suppression of Free Speech will lead to more horrors than the continued free flow of ideas; good AND bad. People can decide for themselves what ideas belong in the dustbin of history. … Silencing those we disagree with denies us the chance to question our preconceived notions. Either to reaffirm them or reassess them. Our ideas need and should always be consistently challenged and reconsidered so we don’t merely end up as consensus group think.”
Adam Sandler’s Love You special , directed by Josh Safdie, is set to start streaming on Netflix on Aug. 27.
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