Wait… this is a joke? Sad…
It is possible to endorse Bill Burr’s good quotes without endorsing him as a person. Sometimes it’s actually the strategic thing to do since Bill Burr is a well-established icon
Same way I might cite Bernie Sanders if my goal is to highlight the Gaza genocide to someone more likely to listen to a democratic politician than a radical leftist like me
There are landlords here in my city that deserve the same treatment for having evicted hundreds of people for profits.
I bought my house from a landlord who had been renting it out since the 1980s. It is just staggering what this dude neglected over the years in the name of continuing to make money off the place.
Bill Blood Money Burr.
Fuck that guy.
He’s the textbook definition of centrist.
ol’ Bonesaw Billy
I do not know anything about him, why do some people have a negative opinion of him?
Bill’s entire stage persona has been that of an everyman. While his material is diverse, it’s mostly observational comedy, and he regularly criticized the rich along with celebrities that perform for morally dubious people.
Some months ago, the Saudi Government hosted a comedy festival, and flew out pretty much all the big names, Bill included.
So the man who partially built his career on being observant, relatable and joking about celebrities who perform for dictators, went and performed for a defacto dictatorship.
After receiving massive backlash, he first tried to wash it on various interviews as some sort of “for the Saudi people, not the Saudi government” bs, which nobody bought, so he pivoted to antagonizing his critics (his own audience) like he does to hecklers.
He is the only comedian whose work I cared about that went, and I held him in very high regard, but nobody should separate the art from the artist while the artist is still alive. He likely doesn’t need the money, so it’s safe to say it was motivated by greed, he contributed to the culture washing of a regime that murders people on the regular, including chopping up journalists in their own embassies.
“for the Saudi people, not the Saudi government”
Lol, I don’t think there even is a “Saudi people”. It’s just thousands of royal family members and slaves.
Well said as to the complexities
That is sad and awful. What a shitty guy
In spite of him being very outspoken about beliefs like in the post, he got paid to do a comedy festival openly put on by the Saudi government to try and launder their image.
That is disgusting. Thank you for letting me know
Comedy actually does play an important role in society addressing topics like this.
Basically tells us that we can still laugh, but it doesn’t mean we’re free to stop addressing the bad stuff
Bill Burr, the King of Ambivalence.
He says a lot of stuff that’s dead on right, then he turns around and says some beleif that makes him a dick.
He’s the ultimate enlightened centrist
I actually love Bill Burr and he is the only comedian that makes me laugh out loud in front of the TV. :)
I know its not all funny and some things are weird but that’s fine for me. Its not often I actually do laugh out loud like crazy at someone. He says what I want to say in some social situations but I don’t. :)
Ol’ blood money Bill…
That’s SHEIKH Billy Bloodmoney to you!
Billy Bonesaw. You know they have LADIES just walking around over there?
nonsense. ladies only exist on the internet (before you discover they’re really a basset hound in a trenchcoat)
Shit, girls they’re onto us…
Shhhh! If we stand really still maybe they won’t see us
🌳
Wait. So this is how I find out Bill Burr sucks? Damnit.
Guess I’ll have to cheer myself up by watching Michael Rapapport get nailed with a snow ball.
For reference: https://youtu.be/8KE7KMGjF-k
This is exactly how I imagine New York.
Wait. What’s up with Rappaport?
EDIT: He’s apparently a self-proclaimed zionist.
Fuck Bill Burr in his stupid fucking ass.
It’s so rare that I have a modicum of respect for anyone but this guy was somebody who I had a ton of respect for right up until the minute of that fucking blood money bone saw bullshit.
I stopped watching all of the comedians that partook in that, but Bill was the one that was the biggest kick in the balls.
Yeah, Bill of all people felt like a real backstab, the man’s selling out MSG, I don’t think he needed the money.
Only thing I’ve heard of hi. since was when Conan had him on his podcast. His explanation somewhat softened my view, but still, you can’t constantly bitch about billionaires and censorship and then go do Riyadh.
It’s not too surprising. I used to listen to the Monday Morning Podcast regularly, until (I think) 2019, when he went on a long rant about (my words) how stressful and burdensome it was to have a lot of money, because you’re constantly having to guard it, and manage it, and be afraid of losing it. Not like how easy it is to be a poor schlub, because you don’t have all that pressure to maintain an affluent lifestyle. I had heard him rant many times about how he’s a comedian, so he says that a lot of things that aren’t meant to be taken seriously. But, there was an edge to that poor-little-rich-man rant which didn’t sound like a joke. Maybe. But it’s a well-known effect of wealth that it decreases one’s empathy, and that it can happen to anybody.
His being a hobbyist helicopter pilot is all anybody needs to know about his wealth level. That shit is not cheap.
Monosodium glutamate?
i think it means madison square garden in this context
I didn’t know it was an acronym for anything else. Maybe?
I applaud the effort
deleted by creator
Im pretty sure he was talking about the bold killing of that journalist, khashogi, all the sports washing and then
Has he even put anything out since then?
Fuck Bill Burr tho.
Ole Billy Blood Money
That’s SHEIKH Billy Bloodmoney to you!
Gottem! 😆
Wait, what? Why is that? What did I miss?
He performed at the Saudi comedy festival
Dammit another one gone. However I still agree with his statements.
I remember when he was like “Thank God the guy missed Trump’s head” and I wonder if he still thinks that.
I think the last comedy special he did was a bigger turn off than his saudi deal to me.
Aye, he lost his mojo.
Comedians Mike Birbiglia, Shane Gillis, Stavros Halkias, Leslie Liao, Atsuko Okatsuka and “Weird Al” Yankovic were invited to perform, but they ultimately declined and spoke out against the event.
Love Weird Al even more. Also:
Okatsuka posted images of the offer she received, which she said included stipulations that the comedians could not perform material that violated certain Saudi censorship rules.[17] Restricted topics included the country itself, its legal system, the Saudi royal family, and religion.
I order you to entertain or else vibes.
I never read the most of this article. Hilarious that Jim Jeffries spoke out before the event saying, “One journalist died. That’s not a hill I’m going to die on.” Then immediately gets sacked from the event.
At least this is one example where both sides really do suck.
Shane Gillis declined and spoke out about it? That is quite interesting.
Yeah, especially since he’s best buddies with Tony “world’s youngest pedophile” Hinchcliffe- I was expecting him to go and be excited about it.
He hangs with literal racists, pedophiles, and nazis, and pretends he’s so above all of it. He’s so fucking awful.
He would’ve loved the dress code over there.
boo
Sold out to Saudi oil money
I love Bill Burr, saw him like 5 times live.
The thing is that, he was really on our side calling out a lot of the craziness. It’s hard to overlook the Riyadh thing. I haven’t followed him since, I still don’t know if he apologized or anything.
Still don’t know why he needed to … his career was on the up.
He seemed to be taken by surprise at the blowback from Riyadh. His reasoning was “the governments can suck, but the people are great. I perform for the people.” It’s a viewpoint convenient to his wallet, but now he doesn’t really bring it up.
He still sees his job is to speak truth to power and always punch up, not down, but I believe he is also ignorant of the totality of the Saudi’s evil. I’d rather try to bring him over to us than cast his voice aside.
If he admitted he fucked up because he didn’t know, I think he should get a pass. Not knowing every bad thing every group of people do shouldn’t be punished, there’s to many to keep track unfortunately. His response was very much lacking though.
Even Shane Gillis had the wherewithal to turn the offer down. Bill knew he was selling out and played the victim when people called him out for it. He put a price on his authenticity and sold it right off.
Every government in the world does tremendous evil if you look carefully enough. If boycotting comedy in horrible countries was a prerequisite for comedy, we would have no comedy.
It’s not performing in Saudi Arabia that’s wrong. It’s that he performed for an evil regime.
Exactly. I also don’t fuck with anyone who performs for Trump.
Granted, that’s a pretty easy sacrifice given the level of talent Trump attracts.
Then you may want to look into some of the corporations and owners that run the stadiums comedians perform in. When he and john Stewart and a bunch of othes performed in Madison square garden a few days back, owned by trumps rich buddy, or basically any of the major venues in the USA, no one said anything. No one is innocent under capitalism, if you make money in this environment you have blood on your hands every day.
There’s effectively a monopoly on stadiums in the US (see Macklemore’s recent failure to secure stadiums for a US leg of his Free Palestine tour). Is there any way for an entertainer to have significant commercial success without getting in bed with a shitty steaming service, distributer or venue?
No one is innocent under capitalism, if you make money in this environment you have blood on your hands every day.
Yeah, I know this. But what is your point? Are you saying we should all just starve in the streets on principle? That we should just fuckit and YOLO cuz we can’t be perfect? That I should STFU about my ethical choices because no one can make perfect ethical choices in this late stage capitalist hellscape?
Maybe we should normalize accepting and maybe even celebrating people’s efforts to be a little better? I love cheese but I can admire someone for being an ethical Vegan.
I largely agree with much of what you’re saying. I just think people draw lines in odd ways. Bill burrs comedy subverts all of the commerce he supports. He seems to want the same type of people he makes money, to die. But everyone should cancel him over one show? His work is culturally supporting things we believe in. Certainly people should draw lines in the sand, but they should also look at the big picture.
Are you saying we should all just starve in the streets on principle?
Obviously the opposite, I’m saying people exist in a world filled to the brim with shitty people and connections to those shitty people are inevitable, especially if you gain success. I could probably find at least one cancelable offense in every famous person you respect, given enough time, probably everyone you know personally as well. We are quick to toss people aside in today’s world without taking the totality of who people are. If the totality of who they are is shitty that’s one thing, but if they are already a reasonably decent person this moral purity test is ridiculous.
Bill burrs response that he was told he could say what he wants, and it felt like in opportunity to reach an audience living under a strict authority, seems perfectly consistent with the rest of his public persona.
Again, appearing in a venue owned by someone is different than performing directly for that person.
The money and power that person gets from their commerce makes that a pretty silly distinction, imo. I think the problem is really the story we tell our minds is easier to picture with a cartoon villain present in daily media we consume.
With that said, if I was in his shoes I wouldn’t have performed there, so im not exactly ready to die on this hill. I just think some of the lines we draw seem arbitrary, and stopping watching these comedians that have made all sorts of evil billionaires money, just because of one show under a shithead, seems silly.
And nobody would care if the the saudi regime got money out of a comedy show. This is not what the festival did was it?
What did it do exactly?
Fuck you blood money Bill.
What a coincidence I was just listening to the smashing pumpkins on the way home
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Brabeck clarify drinking water is a human right, and water for irrigation or for your front lawn is what should be taxed? I keep seeing this kind of meme brought up, and I think the same thing every time
Huh, so he did! Thank you, I did not know that!
All you people condemning Bill Burr like you all wouldn’t do horrible things for a million and a half bucks.
I’ve done unspeakable things for twenty dollars.
I’ll give you $22 to speak of them
$23, bob
$1. I think you’ve both gone over.
if I were already worth $20M, no, I wouldn’t do horrible things for $2M
but my net worth is negative because of my mortgage, and I still need to work to live. and let’s not talk about retirement.
look, I’m comfortable and fairly well off, I acknowledge that. but $2M would mean I would have retirement funded, a paid off home, and flexibility for work. $2M to Bill Burr doesn’t mean the same.
How do you think he made twenty million though?
A million and a half at a time.
I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it for the money.
That being said, I’d like to believe “SMCF would own up to the horrible thing they did for 20$.” If I did the horrible thing, you’d expect me to own up to it. I’d like him to own the horrible thing too.
If I speak about the unspeakable things they’re not unspeakable anymore though.
You can keep your 20$ secrets friend. I’m just saying if you openly compromise on standards you’ve set for yourself, you should at least be like “my bad but, I was going for the bag”.
I can respect that a little. Bill didn’t do that, he just hand waved it away. That’s why I don’t fuck with him anymore.
I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it for $1.5 million, but I dont have $1.5 million.
If you were to pay me, IDK, $500 to go comedywash Saudi Arabia, I wouldn’t.
What?? It’s not like he needed the money. I’d give a pass to a struggling up-and-comer, but he’s got enough money to be able to hold to some principles without suffering hardship
Even you wouldn’t stoop to dancing around for such evil mfers though, would you? Seriously. Bill was already rich. He made a grotesque choice and then doubled down on it over and over since, telling his upset fan base to shut the fuck up about it. Fuck Bill. He never really deserved our support at all.
There’s the thing. If I had a couple mil in the bank, knew I could make another couple mil in the next year, and a piece of shit came up to me and said, “I’ll give you a couple mil to do one show,” it would be pretty easy to say no. It’s just a year’s income and isn’t going to change my life. If I was just getting by or even doing okay and some piece of shit offered me 1.5 mil, well, that could have me retiring in 5 or 10 years, being able to look for a job I’d be happier with, or any number of significantly life-changing things. Bill would had just had to wait a little longer to get this things.
If I am a random bloke? Yeah, maybe. If I am one of the most prominent comedians in the states? Nah.
Principles are rare. That doesn’t mean I won’t judge you for not having them.
I’ve done unspeakable things for twenty dollars.
Do tell
Counter offer to @WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world $21 but you can mime the things so the things remain unspeakable.
Just the act of miming the actions may cause us both to lose ourselves to madness.
