Rob Schneider Has Serious Take On Free Speech Policies In America

When Rob Schneider calls you from his car, you can’t help but wonder where he’s headed. Could it be the set of Happy Gilmore 2? A comedy club in LA? Or maybe one of those rare West Coast bars where David Spade still drinks for free?

Although I never found out where Schneider was going, our conversation turned to bigger topics: the First Amendment, Saturday Night Live, the Khmer Rouge, vaccine mandates, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Shane Gillis.

If that sounds like a random mix, you might not be ready for Schneider’s new book, You Can Do It!: Speak Your Mind, America. It’s part memoir, part political commentary, with plenty of Schneider’s humor throughout. His stream-of-consciousness style jumps from childhood memories to Soviet propaganda and even includes a hilarious Chris Farley story, all within the blink of an eye.

The fact that it’s funny isn’t surprising. After spending nearly a decade on Saturday Night Live, Schneider starred in hit comedies like The Hot Chick and The Benchwarmers, not to mention his iconic roles alongside his good friend Adam Sandler. The humor is expected. But the depth? That’s what catches you off guard.

Schneider isn’t the first celebrity to dive into politics, and he’s certainly not the first to face backlash for it. His move from left to right is unusual but not unheard of. What’s truly surprising is how serious he’s become about it. You Can Do It! isn’t just a collection of opinions; it’s filled with facts, statistics, and deep dives into history, covering topics like Stanley Milgram and Mikhail Bulgakov. At times, it feels more like a college lecture than a Saturday Night Live sketch.

So, what made Deuce Bigelow get so serious?

“I got into show business to avoid doing things like writing a book,” Schneider joked in his interview with The Daily Wire. He admitted that writing the book was “a pain in the ass.” But he felt compelled to act after witnessing what he describes as an “egregious attack on our civil liberties and free speech” by Democrats and the media. That push didn’t take away his sense of humor, though.

 

“We’re kind of f***ed as a country,” Schneider candidly remarked. “But I feel a responsibility, even though it’s cost me money and work. It’s my comedic-patriotic duty to bring these issues to light.”

Free speech is a major focus of You Can Do It!, but it’s Schneider’s notion of “comedic-patriotic duty” that really stands out. He sees comedy as a reflection of society, and comedians as essential to holding power accountable.

“As de facto intellectuals, comedians are the cultural rearview mirrors,” Schneider writes. “Our jokes reflect the essence of a particular time, place, and attitude, to remind us of the context of where we just came from.”

This is why he felt disheartened when, after Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many comedians abandoned their craft in favor of echoing mainstream liberal ideas.

“I think the low point for comedy in the 21st century was late-night TV,” Schneider told The Daily Wire. “These hosts all had the same interchangeable monologues.”

Nothing, he said, was more cringe-worthy than the dancing syringes on Stephen Colbert’s show. “That wasn’t just cringe. It was Soviet bloc. It felt like something out of the Khmer Rouge.”

Schneider believes that preserving free speech in America is tied to the survival of honest, no-holds-barred comedy.

“If you can get people to see the absurdity of a figure or issue,” he said, “mocking it and laughing at it helps to dismantle its path towards tyranny. When the public is comfortable laughing at the government, then they are no longer in fear of the government.”

Unlike many celebrities, Schneider doesn’t see his fame as a moral authority. Instead, he views himself as a comedian with a duty to question authority and promote free speech.

“I’m not saying I’m 100% right about everything,” he says. “But we need to have discourse. We shouldn’t be shouting each other down.”

That said, Schneider doesn’t pull punches. He argues that “the Democratic Party needs to lose this election — maybe two or three more — so they can regroup and become a party that isn’t undemocratic and authoritarian.” Meanwhile, Republicans, he believes, “need to put on their big boy pants and change legislation” if they win in November.

He warns that if Democrats maintain power or if Republicans win but fail to govern effectively, the consequences could be dire. “Western civilization is committing suicide,” Schneider stated, adding, “The United States is the last bastion of freedom in the world. If we go, so goes the world.”

 

Despite the seriousness of his message, Schneider remains optimistic. His hope is bolstered by a few key events: Mark Zuckerberg’s recent admission that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor content (“I don’t think Zuckerberg’s a bad actor”), Saturday Night Live rehiring Shane Gillis after firing him for politically incorrect jokes (“How great was Lorne Michaels to do that?”), and The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, whom Schneider praises as “the rightful heir to Sacha Baron Cohen.”

But above all, Schneider is hopeful because he believes in America.

“This imperfect union was founded under God, and we’ve done something special,” he said. “It’s a union deserving of our forgiveness, thanks, and every effort to preserve it.”

To do that, Schneider stresses the importance of calling out injustice but also advocates for reconciliation. “We must be generous,” he says. “If our fault is that we are too generous, that’s the price we must pay. That’s what this great nation calls on us to do.”

As our conversation wrapped up, I asked Schneider if he had any final thoughts. Without missing a beat, he quipped, “The book’s also pretty funny.”