Rob Schneider's 'You Can Dooo It' Tour Had Us Wishing He Wouldn't

As one of the “Bad Boys” of Saturday Night Live in the early '90s, Rob Schneider was part of a group of men (joined by the likes of Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Mike Myers) who had some of the biggest breakouts of that SNL era.

However, his contemporaries' careers dwarf anything he has since attached himself to, as they still anchor arena comedy tours, Hollywood award show gigs and hugely profitable movie franchises. For his part, Schneider is pandering to Facebook uncles at a mid-size venue for his "You Can Dooo It" tour after spending the weekend charging $60 for autographs at a pop culture convention downtown.

A couple of years ago, Schneider started making conspiratorial anti-vax comments and has since made a hard turn to the right. A quick scan of his X (formerly Twitter) feed reveals a stream ranging from transphobia and vaccine conspiracy to Trump and Elon glazing, and outright racism, like allegations that Caitlin Clark has been targeted by Black players for being white, or perpetuating the notion of a South African “white genocide.”

This rightward shift landed him a “comedy” special on Fox Nation, joining the ranks of arguably once-funny people like Roseanne Barr (she's really the only other one).

When we heard he was playing the Granada, we thought, “Maybe we're missing something? Maybe he’s grown as a person and has interesting insight in the time following the ascendency of The Orange One.” Or, maybe we just love a little bit of good cringe — in that vein, we truly were not disappointed. And with this author being trans, it was a perfect mélange of awfulness to bear witness to.

The crowd was diverse in the sense that it was made up of seemingly older, rich white folks who hadn’t seen Deuce Bigalow, and the rest of the white people who definitely had seen it.

The opening act was a Las Vegas performer who began the show with standards before pivoting mid-way through the set to crooner versions of classic hip-hop. The crowd loved it, and it was admittedly great, until the last couple of songs took a sharp turn, becoming a crooned list of people to get fucked. The first real applause during the set erupted when the singer said “Fuck Oprah.” It was clear the crowd was there to see someone stick it to the libs, and early on, it seemed that desire would be fulfilled.

The second act gave a revolting anti-feminist tirade for about 30 minutes. Her jokes were typical conservative attempts at meme fodder, such as, “Don’t worry honey, there’s no chance you’ll need an abortion because you’re so ugly no one would fuck you.” Nothing original, just edge-lord comments made all the more “transgressive” because a woman was saying them.

Then Schneider came out. The theme of the night was “free speech,” with much ado made of the First Amendment. We aren't aware of any indication that Rob’s speech has actually been restrained by a government entity, considering he was literally on a stage in front of an audience. From what we’ve seen, he’s just been called out for being an asshole — which, from what we know, is also an exercise in free speech. And being that his tour is billed with "Free speech is all speech, not just the stuff you like," you'd think he would understand that.

The comedian's set was made more strange by the fact that it didn't seem to be based on conviction or even a desire to provoke thought. Instead, it came across like Schneider was just trying to use outlandish buzzwords to claim victimhood when inevitably called out. If not a grift, it was quite lazy writing at best.

About midway through the show, Schneider told a story about the SNL 50 reunion where Robert De Niro shook his head at Schneider while asking how the latter could vote for Trump. Schneider says he responded with “I love you.” It was then, sandwiched between a horde of hateful material, that he talked about how we can bridge the gap between political parties with “love.” Without any sense of irony, the crowd seemed to murmur in agreement.

To Schneider’s credit, he gave a nonstop two-hour performance. While none of it was funny, it was a notable effort that would tax any performer. The band was great, and the artists Schneider chose for the band to cover (Dwight Yoakam, Roy Orbison, Thin Lizzy) made for a solid setlist — maybe the only highlight of the night.

If the essence of comedy is to point a mirror at the absurdities of the human condition, this was an unmitigated failure. Every bit Schneider did was a vain attempt to take the piss out of a strawman of whatever “woke” idea he thought he was lampooning. As idiotic as his politics are, he’s got to be smart enough to know he’s just pandering to an unchecked audience.

Above all, though, it must be galling not to be creative enough to write the kinds of jokes that speak to a broader audience, but perhaps that's all Schneider's got left. And oddly enough, we left the show almost feeling sorry for him, because a once-great comedian has found a sad, sad place to live.