Even the Trailer for Bill Burr’s New Hulu Special Is Laughably Un-Woke
Despite what any conservative comedian, cultural commentator or podcaster may think, there’s really nothing particularly “woke” about chaining your wife to a radiator.
Over the last year or so, the greater comedy community has seen a bizarre shift in sentiment toward one of the stand-up industry’s brightest stars and most respected voices. According to the likes of Andrew Schulz and Ben Shapiro, Bill Burr, who made a career mocking such sensitive topics as women, political correctness, male feminists, Hillary Clinton and women, is now the ideological equal to the most bespectacled, blue-haired, bleeding-hearted, gender-non-conforming sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College.
Don't Miss
Following Burr’s recent explosive rant about how America needs to “put down” all the “rabid dog” billionaires who are sowing division while robbing the middle and working classes blind, the conservative side of the comedy culture war judged the Monday Morning Podcast host to be the “wokest of the woke” comedians. Well, on the eve of Burr’s debut special for his new streaming home at Hulu, the teaser for Bill Burr: Drop Dead Years should serve as a reminder that the rant comedian is as close to Hannah Gadsby as women's soccer is to the NBA.
It’s funny how, up until very recently, conservative “comedians” who spent more time complaining about cancel culture ruining comedy than they do writing jokes claimed Burr as one of their own, given that his usual target is a group that enrages right-wingers even more than Black Star Wars characters: privileged white women. For instance, Burr's rant about gender-based pay disparity in professional sports is an absolute staple on the Instagram Reels feed of anyone caught in the alt-right algorithm.
Even as recently as Burr’s appearance on Saturday Night Live back in November, just days after the re-election of President Donald Trump, Burr scored points with conservative comedy fans and angered SNL’s usual, left-leaning audience by mocking the Kamala Harris campaign and comparing it to Hillary Clinton’s failed attempt at keeping Trump out of the White House, pointing out that woman candidates are now “0 for 2” against Trump.
“So, let’s get into the game tape: All right, ladies, enough with the pantsuit, okay? It’s not working; stop trying to have respect for yourselves,” Burr said during the divisive monologue. “You don’t win the office on policy, you gotta whore it up a little bit. I’m not saying go full Hooters but find a happy medium between Applebee’s and your dad didn’t stick around.”
Before the right turned on Burr, the biggest criticism against the Emmy-nominated comic had been that Burr’s habitual targeting of women and women’s issues in his routine goes well past the garden-variety misogyny that comedy fans expect from dude stand-ups over the age of 50. And, in the trailer for Drop Dead Years, Burr proves that, despite how some podcasters may characterize his current post-rage era, he has, in no way, capitulated to his feminist critics as he mocks women for drinking mimosas and jokes that he could have his wife Nia “chained to a radiator” and his applauding audience wouldn’t know it.
Nevertheless, Burr is still the human embodiment of political correctness and hyper-sensitivity according to many of the most prominent and influential figures in conservative comedy. Even in the comments of the above trailer, right-wing comedy fans complained about Burr’s supposed woke turn, with one writing, “hope the old Bill comes back. New Bill is a wokester.”
Unfortunately for ideologues on both sides of the migraine-inducing comedy culture war, Burr will never be a perfect fit for any politically charged label, be it conservative or liberal, woke or based. He’ll always just be Bill Burr, for better, for worse or for woke.
