Rob Schneider offends hospital donors with anti-vax, transphobic comments

Schneider's controversial set — cut short by organizers — prompted an apology from the foundation.

Comedian Rob Schneider left the audience not laughing, but reeling at a recent charity event in Canada.

The former Saturday Night Live star's jokes in Saskatchewan on Saturday angered patrons so much that Hospitals of Regina Foundation, which hosted the Four Seasons Ball, issued an apology.

Event attendee Tynan Allan told the CBC that the content contained transphobic, misogynistic, and anti-vaccination jokes.

"Everyone in the room was groaning, saying, 'What is going on?' Like whispering to themselves. Not a single laugh at times," Allan told the outlet. "It was just very apparent how uncomfortable everyone felt and how unacceptable the things he was talking about were."

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CBC reporter Alexander Quon posted the foundation's statement on social media:

"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 statement read. "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.

"A decision was, therefore, made to ask Mr. Schneider to end his performance earlier than intended, to which he agreed and immediately left the stage," the statement continued. "An unconditional apology was offered right after to our guests and our community. We reiterate this sincere and unconditional apology today, for any offense caused by Mr. Schneider's recent comedy set, at the Four Season's Ball."

The foundation also noted that Schneider had been booked in 2023, through an agent.

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On Reddit, users who said they had been in the audience noted that Schneider had gone on for about an hour before he was shut down, and that he wasn't getting many laughs.

CRZAcidGaming wrote: "Yea I was there that night and it was awkward as hell. Went on about how 'dumb' women are in an audience that was about 50% women, made anti trans, anti science jokes. Had people walk out before the main event as well as some people complaining to management. Went on for about an hour before they shut him down and took him off stage with security escorting him out."

StencilBoy wrote that Schneider opened with jokes about Donald Trump's recent conviction (and how Canada was superior), which got laughs.

"But then he jumped into how [Canadian Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau made everyone get numerous vaccines and called it a 'scam-demic' with no real punchline, which was enough for the crowd (including me) to start realizing that this guy was a moron and his set would be a trainwreck," StencilBoy wrote. "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.

"The rest was kind of tame but the crowd wasn't laughing," StencilBoy continued. "He harped on how 'wives/women' do XYZ and Men have to put up with it. Typical old school and overdone 'being married sucks' schtick and obviously offensive but still kind of tame compared to the other stuff. Then he told a story about his vasectomy which would have been kind of funny if not prefaced with all of the other s---."

The sold-out event reportedly raised more than $350,000 for medical facilities.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Schneider's representative.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.