Cancel culture is over, at least according to famed standup comic Bill Burr.
The 55-year-old appeared on fellow comedian Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast on Sunday, sharing his belief that the widespread phenomenon of social ostracism has finally dissipated.
The duo broached the topic during the May 12 episode while chatting about Mr. Burr’s 2023 comedy flick “Old Dads.” The movie, which stars Mr. Burr along with actors Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine, marked his directorial debut.
“I mean, don’t get me started on that but I—isn’t it time everyone just went, ‘OK, it wasn’t a cool thing to do but it’s been long enough, and welcome back?’” Mr. Maher asked. “It’s not the end of the world. People have done so much more worse things and gotten less. There’s no rhyme or reason to the, to the ‘Me Too’-type punishments.”
Mr. Burr said he agreed with the 68-year-old’s sentiment.
Cancel Culture Is Over
Following his ousting from the limelight, Mr. C.K. has since made his return to comedy, notably winning his third Grammy in 2022, taking home the award for best comedy album for “Sincerely Louis C.K.”Circling back to Mr. Maher’s remarks about the “Me Too-type punishment” levied against Mr. C.K., Mr. Burr noted that cancel culture first emerged as “something everyone could agree on.” However, he said it quickly spiraled out of control from there.
“I remember when, whenever that cancel culture got to the point of where it was, um, ‘I don’t like some of the topics in your standup act,’ yeah, that’s when it got weird,” he said.
“That’s all over, it’s all over,” Mr. Burr continued. “No one cares anymore.”
Mr. Maher challenged his statement about cancel culture being over.
‘Stop Attacking Israel’
In addition to their views on cancel culture, the two comedians found themselves at odds elsewhere in their conversation.Later in the episode, Mr. Maher asked Mr. Burr for his thoughts on the demonstrations and encampments that have erupted at many college campuses across the country as students protest Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Although the “Real Time With Bill Maher” host asserted that the college students were siding with Hamas and thus “in with the terrorists,” Mr. Burr opined that the protesters were merely showing their support for the Palestinians affected by the ongoing war, adding that he was “on the side of the kids.”
“Yeah, that’s easy to say. You know, no one wants to see kids dead. Uh, this is a war,” Mr. Maher replied. “It’s easy to say ‘I’m for the kids’—who’s not for the kids? It comes down to real hard-nosed decisions. ... A country got attacked. Israel got attacked.”
Mr. Burr said he wasn’t saying Israel didn’t have a right to respond to the Oct. 7 attacks, before Mr. Maher continued.
“They’re the only country in the world that they get attacked and then as soon as they counterattack, it’s like, ‘Well, we got to stop this [expletive] now,’” Mr. Maher said. “Don’t attack them. There’s a very simple solution to all this problem in the Middle East: stop attacking Israel.”
“Hey, you just solved it, you just solved it,” Mr. Burr quipped before asking Mr. Maher for his input on how he would resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“How do you solve that one, Bill? Let me hear your hard-nosed decision about that,” Mr. Burr retorted, inquiring why war was still legal in the first place.
“Would you like a real answer to that?” Mr. Maher responded. “For something to be illegal, you have to have the capacity to enforce it, and you can’t enforce against war or else you have to go to war with the country that’s going to war.
“And we don’t want to go to war with Russia over Ukraine,” he declared.
