A truly special event was held on the Budapest campus of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) on Tuesday, 24 March. World-famous American actor and comedian Rob Schneider visited the institution.
Schneider was a cast member on the long-running live sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live on NBC between 1990 and 1994. After leaving the show, he starred in comedy movies such as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), The Animal (2001), Hot Chick (2002), and Grown Ups (2010). He has had a long-standing friendship with his fellow SNL alum Adam Sandler, and appeared in many of his films: on top of the aforementioned Grown Ups, he also played roles in 50 First Dates (2004) and The Longest Yard (2005), among others.
It is certainly unusual to have an established Hollywood actor give a presentation at a Hungarian educational institution.
At the event, however, it became quite apparent that Mr Schneider does not conform to the majority of left-wing opinions of Hollywood, California. He started his speech by saying that he loves Hungary, and the country makes him ‘hopeful for the rest of Europe’. Based on his experience, he also described Hungary as clean and safe, and described the Hungarians as people with ‘a sense of pride’.
On the craft of comedy, Mr Schneider stated that the point of this art form is to point out the absurdities in life, such as the modern gender theory of today, and that the best way to bring down tyranny is to laugh at it. Woke ideology has had a major impact on comedy in the United States: according to Schneider, wokeism is just ‘communism dressed up in manners’.
He also criticized the woke doctrine in comedy, which dictates that a comedian should never ‘punch down’, as in, make jokes at the expense of the less fortunate, typically in the context of race and gender. Mr Schneider objected to this idea, claiming it is an elitist approach, as just because someone has less money than him, it does not mean they are below him, thus he is not ‘punching down’.
The comedian also talked about the upcoming Hungarian election next month. ‘You can’t imagine Paris happening to Budapest, but it can,’ he warned, referring to the effects of mass migration from Muslim-majority countries on the French capital, as well as a potential victory by the Tisza Party.
As for his home country of the United States, he joked that the state of Minnesota has so many Haitian immigrants that ‘it does not even look like Somalia anymore’.
Mr Schneider then told the audience that the American film industry is collapsing, with box office returns declining year after year. He also had some major entertainment news for us: he announced that he and Adam Sandler will be shooting Grown Ups 3 in Europe over the summer. He revealed the close nature of the friendship between him and Sandler, saying that there has not been a week in the last 30 years when the Happy Gilmore star did not call him to ask how he was doing.
Related articles:
At a time when public debate is increasingly polarized and superficial, Hungarian Conservative remains committed to depth, intellectual honesty, and independent conservative thought.
Producing high-quality journalism requires resources. Your contribution helps us expand our coverage, reach new audiences, and keep our content accessible.
Please consider supporting our mission.
