Rob Schneider Says People Walking Out of His Comedy Shows Means He’s Doing It Right

What a pal! Comedian Rob Schneider showed up at the premiere of Adam Sandler’s Netflix special Love You this week with a copy of his new book, You Can Do It!, firmly in his grip. There’s no better way to support a friend’s project than hopping on his platform to promote your own stuff.

Speaking of self-promotion, Schneider used the red carpet to tell The Hollywood Reporter that he’s killing it as a comedian these days, despite recently being kicked off the stage at events ranging from a hospital fundraiser to a gathering of Republican muckety-mucks. 

When people are “yelling” at him during sets, that simply means “I’m doing it right,” he boasted. “The thing about free speech is, free speech is all speech. Free speech isn’t for the nice stuff. It isn’t for the socially acceptable stuff. Free speech is the speech that challenges you. Free speech is the not-nice stuff. Easy speech or speech that’s acceptable to everybody doesn’t need any protection. I’m there to challenge the audience.”

Do I need to free-speech mention that Rob Schneider’s new free-speech book is about free speech? 

For more evidence that Schneider is doing it right, look no further than the statement issued by the Hospitals of Regina Foundation after potential donors walked out on jokes about vaccines, women’s rights and the persecution of white men. “We do not condone, accept, endorse or share Mr. Schneider’s positions as expressed during his comedy set,” it read. “An unconditional apology was offered right after to our guests and our community. We reiterate this sincere and unconditional apology today, for any offense caused by Mr. Schneider’s recent comedy set, at the Four Seasons Ball.”

The fact that a charity was appalled by Schneider’s behavior just reinforces his bad-boy comedy credentials, he explained. “People get upset about things now. And that’s okay,” he said. “I think the more challenging the comedy is and society is, the more interesting the stand-up and art is going to be. When everything’s smooth, art is boring. So the ’90s could have been kind of boring, but this is a good time now, and it’s a challenging time.”

There’s at least one person who isn’t walking out on Schneider these days. That’s Sandler, the only guy outside of Tucker Carlson who’s hanging out with the persecuted comedian in public. According to Schneider, here’s how the Sandman’s comedy invitation went down: 

SANDLER: Hey buddy, when can you come? 
SCHNEIDER: For what? 
SANDLER: Just can you come out here?

With no more charity or political events on his calendar, Schneider had plenty of time to drop by the taping of Sandler’s special. “The next thing you know,” Schneider found himself on stage, no doubt holding up a copy of You Can Do It for the cameras.

“He always includes me,” Schneider said about the guy who's cast him in at least 15 movies. “It’s a lovely thing.”