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Rob Schneider denies stand-up performance for Republicans was cut short over ‘vulgar’ jokes

Former ‘Saturday Night Live’ comedian said he did what he was ‘paid to do’

Inga Parkel
Tuesday 16 April 2024 21:30 BST
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Rob Schneider says SNL was 'over’ after Kate McKinnon performed Hallelujah as Clinton

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Rob Schneider has contradicted a recent report that claimed he delivered such a “gross and vulgar” comedy show for prominent Republicans last year that his performance was cut short.

The Saturday Night Live alum had performed a stand-up show at a holiday gala hosted by the Senate Working Group at New York’s Waldorf Astoria.

According to a Politico article, 60-year-old Schneider’s material was “so off-colour and off-putting” it drove away Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.

“She didn’t have to listen to it and so she got up and left,” her spokesperson told the publication.

The Hot Chick star’s set was supposed to last at least 30 minutes, but SWG executive director James Kimmey halted it within 10 after the comedian made “raunchy” and inappropriate jokes, including some aimed at Asian people such as a crack about “Korean whore-houses”, attendees told Politico.

The publication reported that the next day, approximately 150 attendees received an apology email that said: “While we do our best to ensure every aspect of our program is professional, courteous, and appropriate, we sincerely regret that the entertainment at last night’s program fell short of that goal.”

Schneider has now denied the accusations, telling TMZ: “I’m not changing my material or apologising for my jokes to anybody. Enough with this woke bulls***, America’s sick of it. I did 50 minutes because that’s what I was paid to do.

Rob Schneider
Rob Schneider (Getty Images)

“Nobody removed me from stage, somebody waved to me at the 50-minute mark.”

The Benchwarmers actor, who said he made $50,000 (£40,200) for the gig, added that many of the jokes he performed are also a part of his 2020 Netflix special, Rob Schneider: Asian Momma, Mexican Kids, and have received major laughs before.

SWG told Politico that Schneider “disregarded a verbal agreement he’d made with Kimmey to keep his set relatively clean”.

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Over the years, Schneider has become an outspoken anti-vaxxer and a critic of US President Joe Biden.

Last September, he was met with extreme backlash after deliberately misgendering transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

“If you believe there is such a thing as ‘cultural appropriation.’ Then certainly this gentleman is guilty of ‘gender appropriation,” Schneider tweeted in September.

In his stand-up special Rob Schneider: Woke Up in America, which aired on Fox Nation last summer, he entered the transgender rights discourse, quipping: “Everybody knows what a woman is. A woman is someone who gets mad at you for something you did three f***ing years ago. Biological fact.”

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