Do we like Bill Burr?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Real good on the anti-billionaire stuff and a fire benefit, but a Pride joke and a Saudi gig keep him in the middle.
The story that follows Bill Burr around right now is Riyadh. He was one of more than 30 comedians booked for the Saudi Arabian festival in late 2025, and fellow comics such as David Cross publicly slammed the lot of them for going. Burr's answer on his podcast was that he found it “mind blowing” and that governments, not people, were the problem.
The criticism wasn't just about the money. Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka shared an excerpt of the contract, which barred material that could degrade or defame the kingdom, its royals or any religion. Burr said the restrictions ended up narrowed to mostly not joking about royals or religion. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a bloke bringing laughs to a crowd or a bloke taking Saudi cash.
On the harm test, the LGBTQ+ side is where he costs himself. Guest-hosting SNL in 2020, he said he'd never heard of Pride Month and asked why a group “that were never enslaved” got June. Online critics weren't impressed, and the audience's laughter was uneasy.
Earlier, in 2015 on Conan, he joked about Caitlyn Jenner's transition and repeatedly used male pronouns. GLAAD pointed out that being tied to a birth name or a misassigned gender can cause serious anxiety for trans people. That's the kind of joke a lot of our readers will not find funny, and I don't blame them.
On the other side of the ledger, his politics skew against the rich rather than against minorities. In a June 2025 SubwayTakes appearance he joked that mass deportations would force billionaires to pay living wages, and said the people at the top stir everyone up. It's a joke, so take it as one, but it's not a bloke punching down at migrants.
The good stuff is real, too. In January 2025 he and Shane Gillis played a benefit night at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, with all proceeds going to the Wildfire Relief Fund. That's a cheap way to show up for people who lost homes, and he showed up.