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December 18, 2022

Rob Schneider’s rousing defense of America

By Andrea Widburg

Many Americans remember Rob Schneider from his time on Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s through the early 1990s, when he created several amusing characters. After leaving SNL, he’s had a decent Hollywood career, although he hasn’t had the fame his pal Adam Sandler has enjoyed. I hope, though, that Schneider will be remembered for something else. In a Twitter thread, he expressed his love for America and her constitutional values, especially when arrayed against the mindless emotionalism and techno-fascism that now threatens those values.

I was never a huge SNL fan and watched it infrequently. However, as the 1980s turned into the 1990s, nobody under 50 could miss Rob Schneider’s most famous creation, “The Richmeister” (aka The Copy Guy). His character occupied the copy room at a generic office and genially harassed anyone who entered his domain with a series of pointless nicknames. It was both amusing and uncomfortable to watch:

Schneider still has a stand-up career and, to many people’s surprise, can sing well, too, something he showed when he introduced his daughter, the singer Elle King, at one of his shows:

That’s charming but what makes Schneider really interesting (to me, at least) is how he’s matured now that he’s grown beyond his dewy, youthful comedian stage. Like the great Jay Leno, he could have been studiously apolitical. Or he could have become a manic, angry, leftist misanthrope like Jim Carrey. Schneider, though, went a different route, becoming a thoughtful patriot.

Schneider’s political trajectory was not foreordained. As a half-Jewish San Francisco Bay Area native and San Francisco State graduate (usually a sure sign of leftism) who then made his career in Hollywood, leftism would seem inevitable. Instead, Schneider is not just a conservative but also a proud American who understands and values America’s unique virtues and recognizes the forces arrayed against her.

This emerged with real clarity and power when Schneider responded to a fan who politely asked him to stick to comedy and stay away from the depressing business of politics. To that, Schneider replied with a polite ‘no can do,’ and a rousing encomium to the wonders of our American values and the threats those values face today:

Too many Republican politicians are afraid to say what Schneider said or, if they say those things, they don’t exercise their politics in line with those ideals or as a response to those threats. Many kudos to Schneider for his courage and wisdom.

Image: Rob Schneider. YouTube screen grab.

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