Conservative comedian Rob Schneider has lashed out at Stephen Colbert days after celebrating the cancelation of late-night host’s show with a reference to former late-night host Johnny Carson.
On Sunday, Schneider–who is also an actor–wrote an op-ed for Fox News where he blasted political bias inThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which was cancelled by Paramount last week.
He wrote, “Colbert, like ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel, excluded conservatives completely from his show and limited (prevented) his audience from hearing opposing viewpoints.”
The comedian, 61, has been vocal in speaking out against childhood and COVID vaccines and thrown his support behind anti-transgender groups. Last year he endorsed Robert Kennedy Jr. until he pulled out of the election race, and then threw his support behind Donald Trump.
Schneider wrote: “Colbert fed liberal slop to his liberal-minded Kamala supporters and cared less about challenging them intellectually by actually appealing to their higher nature or engaging in thought-provoking debate.”
He also fixated on the issue of free speech and gave Colbert some credit, saying he had “respect” for the 61-year-old criticizing his employer CBS/Paramount for settling their lawsuit with Donald Trump over his objections to the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. The president received a $16 million payout.
Colbert calling out Paramount for backing down “took guts, I will give him that,” Schneider said. He then cited his own issues with free speech, saying sharing his views on vaccines had cost him work and money.
In a red carpet interview with Variety on Monday at the launch of Happy Gilmore 2, Schneider defended the op-ed and found an opportunity to diss the late-night host once again.
“Last time I checked we’re allowed to give our opinions,” he said, before adding, “Free speech is free speech but it’s not free from consequences.”
The Hot Chick star and Golden Raspberry winner then noted, “I prefer the old days of Johnny Carson.”
Johnny Carson, known as the king of late night, started his talk show in 1962. It ended in 1992. Carson died three years later. In recent years conservatives have claimed Carson stayed out of politics, although he did in fact make jokes about politicians. He was widely seen as having made Gary Hart, a Democrat, a laughing stock, killing his 1988 presidential run, and on the flip side, rescuing Bill Clinton’s career by having him on the show in 1988 a week after he became a laughing stock for his absurdly long speech to the Democratic Convention that year.
Happy Gilmore 2 star Adam Sandler said on the same red carpet of Colbert’s show finishing, “I feel terrible that he doesn’t have what he’s had for so many years... The guy is as smart as it gets, he’ll figure something out immediately.
