WARMINGTON: When it comes to telling Trudeau jokes in Regina, Schneider learned you can't do it

Article content

Things are so flat in Saskatchewan that when comedy is run out of town you can watch it leave for three days.

The province may be the home to comedic gems like Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie but when it comes to telling trans jokes or trading barbs about Trudeau’s pandemic lockdown and vaccine mandates, legendary American funnyman Rob Schneider has learned something about Saskatchewan.

You can’t do it.

Or at least the former Saturday Night Live star – who has appeared in many movies including several Adam Sandler flicks where he reprised his famous “you can do it” line – can’t.

He was cancelled for it.

The comedian was asked to end his stand-up comedy routine at a fundraiser in Regina on June 1 because the audience and organizers didn’t find what he was saying funny. Needless to say, in a province famous for its elevators, they are not taking this comedic mishap with a grain of salt.

“We do not condone, accept, endorse or share Mr. Schneider’s positions, as expressed during his comedy set and acknowledge that in this instance the performance did not meet the expectations of our audience and our team,” the Hospitals of Regina Foundation said in a statement that appeared in the Regina Leader-Post.

Not only was Schneider sent packing but the audience at the Four Season’s Ball got an “unconditional” apology. All references to co-star of such movies as Happy Gilmore, Grown Ups and Little Nicky were scrubbed from their website.

“While we recognize that in a free and democratic society individuals are entitled to their views and opinions and that comedy is intended to be edgy, the content, positions and opinions expressed during Mr. Schneider’s set do not align with the values of our foundation and team,” the Hospitals of Regina Foundation said.

Yikes. Doesn’t sound like people are having a gas in Dog River anymore. Maybe they would have been better off having Brent Butt from Corner Gas or fellow Saskatchewan comedian and farmer Quick Dick McDick handle this home town crowd.

Schneider’s team has not responded to a request for comment.

So, I went to a legendary entertainment publicist Bill Vigars, who worked with the Corner Gas crew, to learn what transpired there. With his help we found people in attendance.

“He opened up with some pretty funny jokes about how Trump is a convicted felon and so America is a shit show compared to us. Those got laughs, obviously,” StencilBoy wrote on Reddit.com.

So, Trump and America bashing is still funny in the prairie.

“But then he jumped into how Trudeau made everyone get numerous vaccines and called it a ‘scam-demic’ with no real punchline.” 

Schneider is lucky they didn’t freeze his bank account.

“He then moved to transphobia saying that ‘back in my day we liked our women without penises’ and told an anecdote about how he told his son, who is bad at sports, to say he is a girl to get a better chance,” said StencilBoy. “The rest was kind of tame but the crowd wasn’t laughing.”

Soon after, “the host told him that they had run out of time.”

But not before they raised $350,000 for the hospitals.

Not everybody in Saskatchewan agrees with the cancellation of Schneider.

“It’s just free speech,” said Iron Mike Beaudoin, who was recently in the Toronto Sun hyping the new carving statue of Don Cherry and Blue outside his artist market in Mortlach, Saskatchewan. “They should have just let him finish.”

Iconic Dickson Delorme, who performs as Quick Dick McDick, added, “There are always two sides to each story” and “I’ve heard both in this case and I think the crowd’s reaction is being blown a bit out of proportion. From what I hear, a few walked out and they just quietly ended his set early.”

“I’m not sure the proper vetting was done when selecting him,” he said, reminding that “as a comedian we are also somewhat responsible to read the room/event we perform for.”

Vigars, who books acts for charity events and is famous for being the coordinator of the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope but is also the publicist for David Foster and Phil Collins, agreed with Delorme that understanding the audience is part of the job.

“We used to like to book Sinbad because he would eat with the patrons during the dinner, got to know people and the vibe,” he explained.

That said, the organizers in Regina shouldn’t skate on this one. This is their fault. They should have known what they were getting with Schneider, whose latest TV special was called Woke Up in America and his most famous movies were Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo and The Hot Chick.

Also, just last fall Schneider, who’s father is Jewish, took to X to say he was cancelling a trip to Canada out of protest for the Trudeau government inviting a “former Nazi” into the House of Commons.

“This guy fought for Hitler! Not like what we call people Hitler today. THEE Hitler! Like in actual Adolf Hitler.”,” he posted at the time.

Schneider has also supported the trucker’s Freedom Convoy in the past and called Trudeau’s response to crush the protest “tyranny.”

Schneider is now taking his tour to Australia where Thursday he told that country’s Channel 7 TV morning show “people get uptight about stuff… The idea is to be able to express things and to let out, people can laugh at things. It’s not attacking anybody.”

They didn’t laugh in Saskatchewan, and it turned out to be Schneider who was attacked. They may not be able to laugh at themselves at this fundraiser, but a lot of people in the world are laughing at them.

jwarmington@postmedia.com