Rob Schneider Denies Report He Was Removed From Stage During Comedy Set at GOP Event

Comedian Rob Schneider is refuting a news item that appeared on Politico’s website this week stating that his stand-up set at a GOP event in late 2023 was cut short when his jokes were deemed too lewd for the conservative crowd.

The outspoken right-leaning comic, who made a name for himself as a Saturday Night Live cast member in the ’90s and went on to star in comedies including The Hot Chick and Grown-Ups spoke to TMZ about the Politico report, which reported that Senate Working Group Executive Director James Kimmey cut him off within 10 minutes into the set at L.A.’s Waldorf Astoria over the comedian’s “raunchy” jokes.

The event had about 150 attendees, Politico reports, and the guest list included 40-plus Senate chiefs of staff, who received an apology email regarding Schneider’s brief performance the day after the event.  One joke about “Korean whore-houses” made it into the reported 10 minutes before the audience, Politico reported, citing anonymous sources. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, Republican of Mississippi, found the set so “gross and vulgar” that she had to leave the event, a spokesperson told Politico. 

Schneider rebuffed the story on Wednesday, telling TMZ that he performed his full 50-minute set at the event, and said many of his jokes are in his 2020 Netflix special.

“I’m not changing my material or apologizing for my jokes to anybody. Enough with this woke bulls—. America’s sick of it,” Schneider said. “I did 50 minutes because that’s what I was paid to do. Nobody removed me from stage, somebody waved to me at the 50-minute mark.”

He accepted the $50,000 appearance fee, he said, and worked in a jab at President Joe Biden, adding that payment “devaluated by 26 percent over the last three years.”

Schneider has emerged as a voice on the political right, going from being known as SNL’s “Copy Machine Guy” and the star of broad comedies to finding ads he appeared in 86’d after he endorsed debunked anti-vaccine rhetoric and publicly repeating conspiracy theories. As outlined in a June 2023 Rolling Stone article headlined “The Red Pilling of Rob Schneider: A Complete Timeline,” the comic began to rally against “cancel culture” and Hollywood’s left-wing bias in 2020 and two years later, told podcaster Glen Beck, “I don’t care about my career anymore” and is more focused on the world where his children will live.

THR has reached out to a rep for Schneider.