Bill Burr’s Take on Colin Kaepernick Backlash Resurfaces After ‘SNL’ Appearance

Bill Burr hosted SNL on Saturday night, putting his style of comedy on display for viewers at home. His comments about White women and John Wayne sparked conversations and surprised some, but those that followed Burr throughout his career anticipated some of the jokes. They even retweeted a bit about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick as evidence that Burr routinely covers divisive topics.

The bit from Burr’s Netflix special, Paper Tiger, addresses the reactions to Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem. As Burr discussed during the bit, the former 49ers QB said that he was kneeling in protest of police brutality and racial inequality, but the conversation went in a different direction. People instead said that Burr was disrespecting the troops. The NSFW bit is available below.

When Kaepernick originally kneeled, several fans and peers alike said that they did not agree with his decision to do so during the national anthem. Matthew Stafford’s wife, Kelly, opposed Kaepernick at the time. However, she has since changed her opinion, to the point that she posted a heartfelt apology on social media.

“When Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem, I had strong feelings about it. Even when he kept saying it had nothing to do with the flag or military, I didn’t listen,” Kelly wrote on Instagram. “I kept not listening to him or anyone else and let the political rhetoric persuade me that him kneeling was disrespectful to our military. Over the past several months, I have opened my ears, mind, and heart and it has opened my eyes to see how wrong I was and for that I am sorry.”

Burr addressed many of the reactions to Kaepernick during his Paper Tiger special, but it was only one bit in a long list discussing topics that create arguments on social media. He has jokes about “fat-shaming,” the military and Michelle Obama. Fans of his comedy are well aware of these bits, but reactions to his SNL appearance showed that some viewers did not have previous knowledge of his comedy.

For example, Burr had a segment about cancel culture (the act of publicly shaming people for offensive comments and trying to get them fired) and the response to an old John Wayne interview in Playboy. The comedian said that people are running out figures to cancel.

“They’re going after dead people now. They’re trying to cancel John Wayne,” Burr said. “It’s like ‘Yeah dude, God did that 40 years ago.’ They’re all up in arms. They’re like ‘Did you hear what he said in that interview in Playboy in 1970? Can you believe that?’ It’s like ‘Yeah, he was born in 1907. That’s what these people sounded like.’”

Some viewers responded to the jokes by calling Burr “misogynistic” while others said that he “crushed” his monologue. Bert Kreischer posted videos on his Instagram Stories of him and several other fellow comedians watching the monologue and laughing at each comment about the “Woke” movement, toxic masculinity and several other topics.