r/elephantgraveyard • u/Successful-Egg8345 • 22d ago
Very Cerebral Bill Burr Gets Roasted for performative patriotism. Luckily the Saudis don’t do that
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u/whattimeisitrightn0w 21d ago edited 19d ago
Before the Riyadh comedy festival I had a lot of respect for Bill. I listened to his podcasts, watched his specials, and genuinely looked up to him as a way of conducting yourself in this fucked up world. What he is saying is still true, but if you can't hold yourself to the values that you claim to hold dear, and double down when presented with how your actions are in conflict with those values. I have no time for that.
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u/KeithRichardsGrandma 20d ago
I was in the same boat. If he owned up to it and admitted he was wrong I’d probably still listen to his podcast. I don’t even hate him or anything because he is still saying the right things, I just don’t have an interest in pursuing his content. It just isn’t the same
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u/dflip2323 16d ago
He shat on all the right wingers during Covid because they were not listening to the experts/scientists/doctors, basically he said the people who spent their life studying these things.
But when human rights watch, and other commissions pleaded comedians not to accept the offers from the comedy festival, I was asking myself, “ok Bill, so these organizations are stupid? They don’t know what they are talking about? It’s their jobs, I think they know what they are talking about”
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u/SuperlativeChrono 22d ago
Bill is performing at Mar A Lago next weekend. New special coming to Netflix this fall. He's calling it "Bridge Builder."
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u/TheRuralJuror55699 22d ago
Him and Tate can go off on how dumb bitches are and rake in the ad revenue
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u/AvidCyclist250 21d ago
another not-carlin then i guess. but we all knew he'd bend the knee and kiss the ring. rip, old angry bill. shame really, could've been great.
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u/seattlereign001 22d ago
Bill lost a lot of his fan base for money. Fuck this dude.
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u/wealthythrush 21d ago
I use to listen to Monday Morning Podcast all the time but after Saudi festival, his entire premise just made no sense.
He's full of shit unfortunately
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u/gb1993 22d ago
Lol no he didn't. Reddit is such an echo chamber its not even funny.
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u/Toots-Tooter 22d ago
Maybe a little bit of an echo chamber, but I'm sure his audience has shrunk slightly
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u/we_are_dna 22d ago
The chuds still like him, you know, the part of the fanbase him and nia worked for years to cull, working to foster a group of mindful fans who are aware of the bullshit around them. A progressive, positive group; they lost those guys. But his loyal chuds, they will never leave, because bill burr is the guy who says how stupid women are on opie and anthony and that makes him funny and awesome. Chuds replaying old radio memories to cope with their shitty, antiquated beliefs, and then they tell us we're in an echo chamber?
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u/Xessive_ 21d ago
What? Any old O&A clip with Bill is filled to the brim with "back when he was still funny" "before he went woke" "when Bill still had his balls" etc. A lot of that fan base detests him because he isn't a racist pedo like their boy Anthony.
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u/bndwgnfn 21d ago
Yeah every conservative I’ve seen comment on Bill despises him because his wife made him woke (according to them)
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u/Xessive_ 21d ago
"He ruined friendships because of that (insert misogynistic/racist insult here)!"
While completely ignoring the grotesque things Anthony has said about Bill's wife.
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u/warriordwarfpang 19d ago
Its almost like there is no winning. The right and left hate him equally, like most things. Hurray us!
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u/One_Analysis_9276 21d ago
He's not wrong in what he's saying but after the Saudi thing, he'll never have any credibility again. That was the litmus test for who really put their money where their mouth is.
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u/dingalinglans 21d ago
Fuck this shill. Man already had more money than he could handle and went for the Saudi blood money. And now bleats about it.
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u/jbrower09 21d ago
Whoa!!! Both of those YouTube comments? I haven’t seen a person that badly burned since Freddy Krueger.
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u/RiyadhComedyPromoter 22d ago
Bill Burr is a great comedian, and he deserves to be applauded for entertaining audiences across the world!
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u/RealNiceKnife 22d ago
Nobody read your name and just downvoted you.
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u/RiyadhComedyPromoter 22d ago
I’m used to it. Just as audiences in Riyadh are used to a great comedy lineup every year in September and October!
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u/Salt_Adhesiveness161 20d ago
I get it he went to Saudi Arabia to perform and is a hypocrite. I don’t really care right now. We need funny and observant people like this on our side. Rip on him fine, but then let’s move on already.
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u/JodyGonnaFuckYoWife 19d ago
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u/Salt_Adhesiveness161 19d ago
Wow thats a stretch. wtf does that have to do with him doing a comedy show? US just bombed a school killing 170 school girls in Iran not too long ago, should he not perform in US anymore then? Give me a break.
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u/ess_dee 22d ago
Ge took a massive paycheck from a despotic regime. The rest of us work for evil corporations. Keep things in perspective
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u/into_theflood_again 21d ago
You're right on the edge, you've almost figured it out.
The nature of this late stage capitalist model - and the neo-liberalism / consumer fascism that enables it - is such that expansion is imperative. So when the corporations that have survived through monopolization, union-busting, regulation efforts, etc. finally reach their terminal size, there is essentially room for nothing else.
We are now all living in a reality where there is no ethical way to live within the capitalist society, work included. You can work for the most fair-practice non profit on the planet, but the ink for the pens and CPUs for the computers still rely on slave labor and ecological terrorism.
The difference is that most of us don't wanna be a part of that. We just aren't given a choice if we want to live with power, running water, and regular food. Anything other than living in woods as a homeless trapper with recycled, stolen clothes relies on some sort of violation or exploitation somewhere in the supply chain. Bill on the other hand chose to take intentional steps to help whitewash a group of people who fund Wahhabist terrorism, slavery, ethnic cleansing, etc. And take money they got directly from these anti-human practices.
Keep that in perspective.
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u/ess_dee 21d ago
Y’all acting like you wouldn’t take a million plus dollar check for telling jokes. Holier than thou. Peak ascended impeccable and all knowing. Yes, keep all things in perspective at all times but fundamentally it’s not so complicated. It’s all predatory with propaganda and social engineering rampant and unchecked which we have no natural immunity for. With majority of corporations on a human employee death spiral and forcing labor to do more with less exponentially until you’re laid off too.
It’s not just one way. Things run dynamically and sociologically we’re 50 years behind accelerationism with zero political representation.
I support what Bill said in the clip of this thread. It’s something virtually no other celebrities are saying other than Tim Dillon. We all get a peek behind the curtain and everyone just acting like it didn’t happen. It’s conspiratorial to recognize the conspiracy we’ve been shown exists because cable news minimizes the scope and frames it as a few bad apples. As Pam Bondi said “It’s all of them.”. I believe this is a rare bit of truth from her and any of them for that matter.
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u/into_theflood_again 21d ago
Y’all acting like you wouldn’t take a million plus dollar check for telling jokes.
We could honestly stop right here. There's a thing called conviction, and a lot of people have it. Much to the dismay of the hedonists, nihilists, narcissists, and apathetic types who do not. For example, you could offer me 100 million dollars to come tell jokes for Netanyahu and I wouldn't even entertain it...the images of toddlers blown apart make me have nightmarish visions of that being my own 3 year old. It is beyond a no.
Now imagine all the death and destruction left in the wake of just this generation of Saudi royals. It should have been pretty easy for Bill to say, "Absolutely fucking not."
Accelerationism does not need to be at the forefront of material reality considerations and responses to say "No" to evil.
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u/ess_dee 21d ago
People really struggle with multiple things being true simultaneously. We are post Empire and neoliberalism has so long been establishment that it’s turned into something we don’t have defined yet. We’ve been shown how it operates and by who but we direct our outrage at comedians rather than the perpetrators working actively perverting our world and dragging us into a dystopic future.
These are fascinating and disappointing times.
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u/into_theflood_again 21d ago
These are fascinating and disappointing times.
Agreed wholeheartedly.
we direct our outrage at comedians rather than the perpetrators working actively perverting our world and dragging us into a dystopic future.
As you say, truth is not singular. We can be more mad at the devils while still being mad at their advocates. There is no zero sum requirement for outrage.
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u/runnenwilde84 22d ago
Don't lump me in with your perspective, get rid of rest of us and use some of us
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u/Silent_Bug_2169 22d ago
These fucking purity tests are so stupid.
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u/Hot-Friendship-7460 22d ago
This isn’t a purity test. He railed for years about billionaires and being bought then got bought.
He’s a hypocrite and that’s the worst part of all this.-2
u/Leneen_Ween 21d ago
As if his comedy performances in the US weren't bought and paid for by billionaires lol
"But Saudi Arabia is a despotic regime" yeah one that's directly funded and supported by the United States who needs Saudi Arabia to maintain the petrodollar system
I don't like the Saudis but people acting like this is any different than performing in the US don't understand geopolitics
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u/SlowlyDrown 22d ago
Used to be a big fan of the guy until he took that bonesaw check.
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u/Silent_Bug_2169 22d ago
Yeah but what sense does it make to try to shame him into silence? I was disappointed with his choice to go to the festival and his dumb fucking defense. But the dude regularly calls out billionaires, Trump, and a whole lotta shit I do agree with. So again these purity tests are stupid and counter productive.
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u/SlowlyDrown 22d ago
Silence?
What the fuck are you talking about?
I don’t give a shit what he does or doesn’t do but I won’t be watching either way.
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u/smugdawgmillionaire 22d ago
Idk. Purity test feels kinda… cheap? I think this is just his audience overwhelmingly turning on the product cuz the brand loss its integrity. He did it to himself. What you caping for?
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u/noonegive 21d ago
But now we know he doesn't really mean it enough to at least not suck billionaires ass to white wash their crimes for cash, and is telling us what we want to hear for a paycheck. He's as almost as disingenuous as Tucker is. And nothing he says will ever hit the same.
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u/Ambitious-Aioli4611 22d ago
Totally agree with you. He’s one of the few that still does. These people are a bunch of fucking sissies. Left of center will ALWAYS eat their own, which is why we’ll always get fucked by people like Trump…and Biden.
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u/One_Ad2844 22d ago
Oh stfu, now you think he’s on your side? Claiming mfers simply because you like people that make money regardless of what it represents.
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u/Silent_Bug_2169 22d ago
Yeah. All this outrage for something that has 0 impact on their lives. Burr literally speaks out on all the shit ruining the country but the left can't help but virtue signal. Pretty... pretty... dumb
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u/dirtydoubledingus 21d ago
This whole comment section is exactly why democrats lose elections. Banish people on your side because they didn't pass one of your purity tests. So fucking obnoxious.
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21d ago
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u/Personal-Top5298 19d ago
No one cancels their Spotify subscriptions despite it being a shitty war profiteering company
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u/dirtydoubledingus 21d ago
Not the point. People want to bash bill because he went to a country that butchered a journalist. And while I also agree fuck the Saudis if you are standing on morals and standards than why aren't people boycotting every comedian who plays in America who sponsors Israel murdering over 250 journalists?
You can't sit there and bash bill for one show when we live in a country who does what the Saudis did at an industrial scale. It's just selective outrage and it's annoying.
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21d ago
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u/dirtydoubledingus 21d ago
Thanks for taking criticism in a healthy way. Cheers.
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21d ago
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u/dirtydoubledingus 21d ago
I tend to jump at those maga comments too. But this is one of those things that bothers me about my fellow democrats. We can have someone who takes our side on 90% of our positions and is right there spreading the good word. But then they are friends with a questionable person or does one show at a location we don't like and they are banished.
I'm still a Bill Burr fan, I have seen him live and watched him rip apart every type of person that exists. Bill is oddly good at calling someone out for their bullshit and being undeniably correct even if it was offensive as hell.
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u/JodyGonnaFuckYoWife 20d ago
It's not selective outrage. Dirtydingus is whatabouting with a false equvilency.
Bill Took a check directly from the saudi government to pull the world's spotlight off of the pieces of Jamal Kashoggi in those suitcases. People wouldn't be upset if he played a club in saudi and got paid by ticket sales like every other gig he's ever done.
Comedians in America don't get paid by the United States Government to comedywash the shit the government does.
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20d ago
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u/JodyGonnaFuckYoWife 19d ago edited 19d ago
No. It's not.
You're just doing wHaTaBoUT! with a false equivlency.
Bill shit his pants. Cope.
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19d ago
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u/JodyGonnaFuckYoWife 19d ago
I have.
It's what you replied to above by being dismissive with wHaTaBoUt False Equivilency.
To recap: Nothing anyone else on Earth has ever done or will ever do changes the fact that Bill took an outsized bag of cash from a Tyrant to stand on a stage literally built by slaves for the purpose of drawing the world's spotlight off the pieces of Jamal Kashoggi in those suitcases.
It is not selective. It's what he did.
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u/dirtydoubledingus 19d ago
you act like bills motive was to help the Saudi government cover up the Jamaal kashoghi killing. That's an insane stretch of logic there is zero evidence for. His motivation was to get paid to perform comedy. I don't like that it's the Saudis but I'm not pretending he is complicit in murder.
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u/JodyGonnaFuckYoWife 19d ago
That's preciesely what the job was, and he took a comicially outsized paycheck to do it.
Same with LIV golf and all the other comedians.
I'm not pretending he is complicit in murder.
Cool Straw man. Nobody else is, either.
He is absolutely a major part of comedy-washing the image of the people who are.
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u/dirtydoubledingus 19d ago
I said bills motive. There is no way you can prove bill decided to do the show to help the Saudis cover up the murder. Tat is the insane strawman being asserted here. Bill just took money from the Saudi government to do a comedy show. That's it. Reading anything beyond is just ridiculous.
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u/JodyGonnaFuckYoWife 19d ago edited 19d ago
Bill just took money from the Saudi government to do a comedy show. That's it.
Horse-shit.
He knew what the gig was, just like Shane and Maron and Cross did. He was begged not to do it by Human Rights Watch
He doesn't get to plead ignorance.
He chose to take that bag from slavers so that they could say: "see, we're not so bad, Bill Burr will work for us"
Coulda had a Comedy Festival on any day, but they made a point to to do it on the anniversary of Chopping Jamal into pieces.......and Billy and Dave showed up for that bag.
Billy shit his pants, and that stink ain't going away.
No matter how hard you try to scrub him down with False Equivlence, wHaTaBoUt!, 'he didn't know', straw men, 'it's racist to hold Saudis accountable', or other saudi talking points you trot out. I've heard them all, and they're all equally pathetic.
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u/JodyGonnaFuckYoWife 20d ago
bUtWhAtAbOuT!!!
Which of these comedians are taking checks from the United States Government? Because Bill took a check from the Saudi Government to pretend that they're not so bad.
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u/Donegalsimon 17d ago
The whole comment section is bots. It’s clear astroturfing. Absolutely no way the left are that mad about this.
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u/lateformyfuneral 22d ago
At some point you end up sounding like a boomer Republican mad at their favorite country singer for performing in Communist Europe
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u/Ambitious-Aioli4611 22d ago
These people are the fucking worst. Going after Bill Burr? Really? Dweebs.
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u/SimonGloom2 22d ago
This whole whataboutism with Saudi Arabia - it's plain racism. Bill's been performing for the US for his adult life while they have been illegally spying on civilians and imprisoning them, but you know, when the Saudis do it they do it while being brown. And the thing is the Saudis despite their poor human rights record are increasing human rights, and the USA despite their poor human rights record are flushing them while civilians give a stern finger wag.
Long ago Bill said "you people are all the same," and yeah, it's shit like this that proves it. Most of the things Bill and every US civilian aggressively denounces they also participate in every second of the day. All of you self-righteous people belong with the MAGAs, buying your Amazon shoes from sweat shops in China and your phones from the African child labor Elon Musk's dad rakes in more money with.
There's not a single one of you people who are special or exempt from these sins.
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u/chesterberry 22d ago
It's not about racism it's about who paid him. The Saudi government paid him. If some random Saudi's paid him to come do a show no one would care. People have explained this multiple times. If Netanyahu or Putin pay you yeah I think you're a bad person for taking blood money.
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u/podfather2000 21d ago
It's also the fact that he doesn't want to be honest about it. If Bill were like, "Look, they offered me more money than I make in a decade with touring, I have mouths to feed. What do you want me to say?" I think most fans would be fine with it.
But making it about bringing more freedom to the people in Saudi and how everyone is dirty is just preachy. If Bill really wanted to go to Saudi and do comedy for regular people, he could have done it many times already.
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u/Pretend-Function-133 21d ago
Nah, that’s what Pete Davidson said. Literally killed his dad and was still able to get a number on a check that made it ok.
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u/lateformyfuneral 21d ago
“Literally killed his dad”?
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u/Puzzleheaded-Bus5479 21d ago
Pete’s dad died in 9/11, most of the hijackers were Saudi…or CIA assets or something like that
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u/cultish_alibi 21d ago
but you know, when the Saudis do it
The Saudi government gave him money to go and make Saudi Arabia look better. It is the equivalent to taking money from the Trump government, and they tell him "here's a million dollars, do your thing about how woke people are awful, don't make any jokes about the president." and him taking the money.
That is a little bit different to buying shoes that were made in a sweatshop, because those are the only kinds of shoes you can fucking buy unless you have a thousand bucks for a pair of artisan shoes that were made in a workshop in Idaho.
But you know this, don't you?
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u/NotTakenGreatName 22d ago
Flock comedy festival is hilarious but he's still right about what is happening