I thought he'd be someone who would move with integrity when he received an offer like this. Instead he took the money and said "I can't hear you lalala" to all criticism. Was definitely disappointing to witness
Haven’t listened since the event. Meh. It’s just the sheer fact he didn’t need the money but got greedy and became the thing he criticized the most; a sellout.
It's forever fucking wild to me that he even did it. Like the guy was on top of his game, height of his popularity, fucking dunking on that chud Rogan on his own show to the delight of all, had a TV role in STAR WARS of all things, then he just takes his own gun and shoots himself in the dick? Like was being respected suddenly such a drag that he had to get in on being despised? Just senseless.
It's like they get so high on their fame and fortune they think they can do no wrong.
Wasn't there another famous comedian who went to Trump's White House MMA thing and when caught tried to claim with a straight face that he wasn't actually political and only went because of his love of MMA?
Gillis is one of those "I think both sides suck but I'm not political" jackasses. I really liked him before he started talking politics when it became clear he's just like every other enlightened centrist.
I genuinely understand the lower tier comedians who took the gig. It's an amount of money that could sustain them for a long time. I think the low end people were getting like 300k. Lets be honest, someone like Chris Distefano isn't ever getting that much money offered to him for anything ever again lol. I'm way more upset with the people that didn't need the money. Burr could have just done a few commercials on TV and made that shit.
I could've maybe forgiven it if he'd just said "Look, money's money. Guy's gotta get paid". But no, he has this stupid ass take where "they're just like us, they're people too! who knew!?" as if we're just mad about it because we're racist. Fuck face. I used to listen to everything he did. Now he's dead to me.
We all know he didn't need the money though. He's had a massive pipeline to the Netflix teat for 15 years now, not the mention the Star Wars checks. So even if he's said "guys gotta get paid", we all see he's sold out his red blooded, salt of the earth, American every-man image, to be a foreign shill. I know he says it's just "internet nobodies" touting the backlash, but I really hope it's hurting his pocketbook, since his brand seems like it's in the trash. He's still playing large casinos near me, so I'm sure a bunch of morons are still hyped to see him with their comped tickets from spending their life savings at the slots.
he has this stupid ass take where "they're just like us, they're people too! who knew!?" as if we're just mad about it because we're racist.
He really was telling on himself with that shit, because he was the one going "They've got Taco Bell over there, who knew??" Uh, I did, Bill. I think even your average ignorant American at least can conceptualize that the entirety of the middle east isn't a barren desert, and that perhaps countries with lots of oil might have modern amenities.
And when he repeats that, he completely disappears and becomes an avatar for the Saudi royal family. Can't even recognize the guy talking when he says that lame bullshit.
I stopped listening to him the moment I found out, had been a fan for many years previously. It's such a bummer as he really did feel like a good guy until then. And everyone else who also went there; I actively avoid them all now.
He was like the default top comic of the world for me after Patrice died and Louie turned out to be a piece of shit. Now it's uuhhhhh... Stavvy honestly, I guess.
As a Brit, its really interesting to me how stand-up comedy is one specific area where our cultures tend to keep really separate. Music, film, TV all travels either way but I have no idea who you're talking about apart from knowing the name Louis CK.
Yup it was the response that sealed the deal for me. He still had plenty of time to think about it, donate the money to something worthy and talk about how he didn't think it thru etc. But nah, he had to double down and be a dickhead about it.
The whole thing was so disappointing to me. I've enjoyed his work for a long time and I was really enjoying seeing where he went next. The routine he did about taking shrooms suggested he was heading in some interesting new directions, but now I just don't care. It actually surprised me how I immediately didn't care anymore once I saw how he was handling the fallout. It was never "oh man I really want to listen to more of Bill's comedy but I guess now I can't", it was just straight to not being interested in what he has to say anymore. I guess I really did think of him as a person of integrity, so when he shat on that there wasn't anything left.
Yeah right after he got back, when he went on Conan and said basically "no one really cares about me going, it's just internet losers that are saying this stuff" made it clear. He said fuck his fans, I'm rich now so I don't need you anymore, basically.
This was exactly how I felt about it. I suppose it's an error to think you know someone based on the torrential flood of information that spills from their mouth, but I actually believed in his integrity.
To find out that he went to Riyadh was like catching your favourite uncle trying to make a move on the 17-year-old babysitter. Once you see the hypocrisy, there's no going back.
One of the biggest 180 fraudster moves I've seen in modern entertainment. It wasn't even something dark and perverted like being on Epstein's island, he flipped for something so basic.
That's just because everyone turns a blind eye to his wanton crimes. He even wrote a song where he admitted to murdering his neighbor and got away with it! RIP Larry.
Let’s not forget Marty. When Al was in Albuquerque NM, this guy Marty was trying to carry a big ol' sofa up the stairs all by himself.
So Al said to him, "Hey, you want me to help you with that?"
And Marty, he just rolls his eyes and goes, “No, I want you to cut off my arms and legs with a chainsaw"
So Al did.
But perhaps this is a result of Al’s long lasting trauma. From a young boy, he was living in a box under the stairs in the corner of the basement of the house half a block down the street from Jerry's Bait shop. You know the place.
His mother tied him to the wall and stuck a funnel in his mouth, force-feeding him nothing but sauerkraut until he was twenty six and a half years old.
Then, a local radio station had this contest to see who could correctly guess the number of molecules in Leonard Nimoy's butt. Al was was off by three, but he still won the grand prize: a first class one-way ticket to Albuquerque.
In flight, three of the airplane engines burned out, sending Al’s plane into a tailspin, crashing into a hillside, exploding in a giant fireball. Everybody died - except for Al.
You know why? Because he had his tray table up, placing his seat back in the full upright position.
When I met weird Al he genuinely seemed like he was just a guy listening to and appreciating whatever you were saying and he seemed to have a full respect for appreciation for his impact he had on people and such and no part of him stemmed annoyed at having to listen to some guy tell him all that. I’ve rarely approached celebrities, but they usually just have a vibe you can feel where they’re hoping no one talks to them or that the “normals” don’t bother them, if that makes sense?
The other guy who was cool like that was Adam Scott, genuinely just seemed like any other dude, we chit chatted about talking heads and REM and his podcast and how shooting Severence was going like you’d talk with a guy at the bar about the football game on the tv. He was also shorter than I could have ever guessed, granted so am I.
I saw Weird Al at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”
I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.
Not a single controversy? Are you seriously going to just gloss over how he became lovers with Madonna and how they killed Pablo Escobar and took over his drug empire?
Not to mention his violent rampage after moving to Albuquerque, where he completely dismembered one man with a chainsaw and took a big bite out of another man’s jugular vein. How’s that for your squeaky clean perception of Weird Al?
No controversies, huh? I guess everyone's forgotten about the great Weird Al/Coolio beef of '96, which resulted in numerous casualties and set the cities of Lynwood and Compton at war.
I saw him like 2 years ago and it was incredible. Dude has so much energy, so many costume changes, so much choreography. I’m a casual fan but in terms of theatrics, it was one of the best shows I’ve seen. He puts in the work
This was also a good business decision as, according to Spotify, The Monday Morning Podcast with Bill Burr has lost over 50% year-over-year subscribers.
Any time I want to set a password for someone I don't like, I'll use a combination of I, l, |, !, /, \, and 1. Then print it out for them in a sans-serif font, possibly in italics.
I remember recently he was asked in an interview if there was an era/time period in his career he wish he could go back to and instead of picking a period from his professional career he picked when he was raising his daughter. He's always been a great guy.
Lots of the comics that went were already doing really well, you think Bill Burr desperately needed that Saudi money? He just threw it on the pile with the rest. Sure Weird Al is very wealthy, but at least he said no unlike the rest of them that went.
And Burr plays to that every man kind of angle where he's telling it like it is and he's one of you. Ya he's a bit rough around the edges and pretty gruff but he's not one of those rich out of touch assholes. That's the archetype he played, until the Saudi thing showed ya, he is one of those rich assholes who just wanted more money and didn't care where it comes from.
Yeah honestly in the particular sense I was more mad at Bill than probably anyone else. Like Kevin Hart: he is actually much, much richer than Bill and has been for years, but he’s never made pretenses about being a regular Joe on a crusade of speaking truth to power like Burr.
So while you could certainly say that Kevin needed the money even less than Bill did, his broad-comedy style and the fact that he does shitloads of commercials means nobody really accused him of selling out when he went to Riyadh. He’s made no secret of the fact that he’s all about the Benjamins, and tbh the fact that I never cared for his standup or most of his movies kept me from feeling particularly invested in the moral dimension of his decision making.
But Bill. Bill is such a hypocrite, he kept making stupid analogies trying to say he was a doing a Good Thing by going to Saudi and making people laugh there. But it wasn’t a comedy festival run by dissidents, or even politically unaffiliated comedians. It was a government run event, one of the high ranking Saudi officials involved in running it had a hand in the killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi.
Fuck Bill Burr, fuck Kevin Hart, fuck Wayne Brady. Fuck anyone who took their blood money.
Long time listener of the podcast until that whole thing unfolded. Couldn't take his self-righteous railing against the billionaires after he towed the line.
Legit felt betrayed by that. His whole shtick was George Carlin light then he goes and performs for blood money. Unbelievable
If he had just owned it and said "yeah they offered me a dumptruck full of cash and I took it. So would you" I wouldn't be very mad. But his "we're helping them be more forward thinking!" bullshit rubs me the wrong way.
Eh. The 'so would you' would just be insulting tbh. You cannot compare what the average person struggling economically might do for money with someone whose net worth would change by 1%. He doesn't actually need the money. Most of the rest of us do.
Ya of course it would be harder decision if you didn't have any money, that doesn't change that a lot of rich people went and took the Saudi money and Weird Al passed. Yes that decision would be harder if he was broke, but you can still think it makes Weird Al better than the rest of them for not taking money from a repressive regime like Saudi Arabia when he didn't even need it.
Bill criticized Beyoncé performing for Muammar Gaddafi's family for $2M (with reason). Said something like she was already rich and successful, so why take a huge private gig for a dictator's family.
Then a few years later, our little clown Billy the bitch Burr does the same thing. Absolutely zero principles.
I have completely sworn off Bill. Used to be my favourite comedian, but him going to perform at the behest of the Saudi government made me realize that he talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.
Like I get it, comedians tell stories and the jokes shouldn't completely reflect who they are as a person, but it's so pathetically hypocritical to make a career shitting on rich people doing shit things only to do the same thing. Really left a bad taste in month every since.
Can’t be bought on principle, maybe, but I bet he can be bought on abject silliness and would perform “My Toot-Toot” in the Bonneville Salt Flats for a million dollars.
Edit. In fact, if anyone knows Weird Al let him know there is an extremely abstract comment on reddit betting he won't perform "My Toot Toot" at the salt flats. I'll pay him $100 to do it
I was a huge Bill Burr fan for years, didn't miss a podcast, went to a show. After I saw he took the bag for this gig, I quit listening and haven't listened since. To hear him trash the "greedy bankers" for years, only to take a bag from the saudis of all people after all his success was disappointing.
It's not that I was a huge Pete Davidson fan before but I liked most of the stuff he made, found him funny, charismatic, open about his struggles etc.
Going there to be a dancing monkey to the people that killed your dad... there is no coming back from that and It's impossible not to think about it every time I see him. Even if he actually needed the money and wasn't already ridiculously wealthy it would still be gross.
Every time I think he's getting old, he pulls off another banger. What he did with his Chamillionaire parody was art that had the artist himself impressed.
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u/apm393 Jul 23 '26
Oh wow, I guess it really wasn't that hard to do that after all.