Bill Burr gave a no-holds-barred interview to Vulture where he called CNN and Fox News a “fucking disease” and railed against conservatives like Ben Shapiro for trying to brand him as some “woke” comedian. Burr and Shapiro got into a public spat earlier this year when Shapiro blasted Burr for “going woke” after the comedian took aim at “selfish” and “greedy” CEOs in the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson.
“He doesn’t even know what that word means,” Burr now told Vulture about Shapiro. “His definition of woke is white liberals’ definition of woke, and they didn’t even know what it was; they just took the word from Black people. That’s the worst thing about our people — not only do we take from other cultures, we don’t even take the time to understand the definition.”
“That fucking guy,” Burr added later in the interview about Shapiro. “He was trying to bring me into his fold. At one point, the guy liked me and then, all of a sudden, I’m a fucking asshole. I’m supposed to look at that guy like he’s an adult?”
When Vulture observed that Shapiro’s criticism took off online given that a “a certain portion of the right” also started to complain about Burr going “woke,” the comedian responded: “Racists. They’re racists. They send pictures of monkeys to me and my wife [the actress Nia Renee Hill]. They’re fucking horrible people. And they’re cowards, and they never say it to your face.”
“There’s an ugliness out there right now where if you’re a racist, if you’re an antisemite, if you’re a psycho nationalist and you want a softball interview, there’s podcasts out there where you can get one,” Burr continued. “They will laugh at your fucking bad jokes and give you this pass. There’s a really ugly thing going on out there, and we’ve already seen what it does to a nation, and it’s not the way to go.”
Burr’s comedy has become increasingly political in recent years, although he makes a point to lambast both the right and the left. This decision has resulted in each side of the political aisle accusing Burr of siding with the other, not that the comedian cares anymore.
“I trash ’em both because that is my job,” Burr told Vulure. “I can’t fix the political system, but when I do stand-up, if I start trashing, like, Trump, I’d hear the left in the crowd go, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ And I’d be like, ‘The fuck? You voted for a guy that is staring off into space. Your guy literally should be in a fucking home. What are you patting yourself on the back for? Your fucking party has not let you choose your candidate since Obama’s second term. You’re liberal? That’s fucking insane.’ I’m not flying either one of their flags; it’s the people who pay them that’s the problem. And they’re always distracting us with other stuff. CNN and Fox News are a fucking disease.”
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Burr originally responded to Shapiro’s “woke” criticism by calling the Daily Wire co-founder a “jerk-off.”
From Variety US