By Page Six | Created at 2025-04-03 15:27:01 | Updated at 2025-04-04 18:53:51
1 day ago
Bill Burr won’t back down.
The comedian snapped at a group of reporters who pressed him about current events at the 2025 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony, where his pal Conan O’Brien was honored.
In a viral video circulating on X, a journalist told Burr she had been “reading up” on his support of accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione and asked him to clarify his previous comments as he walked the red carpet at the March 23 event.
“I don’t think you read up on it because I said what I felt about it, and I said what a lot of people said,” he bluntly replied of his “Free Luigi” stance.
The Emmy nominee, 56, said he was not going to fall for a bait question and respond with “some controversial moment so [she] can get clicks.”
“I’m here for Conan,” he continued. “I’m not doing all of this. What are you gonna bring up next? The Middle East? I went to summer school three out of four years in high school. I’m not qualified to talk about this.”
Despite his obvious desire to steer the conversation in a different direction, other reporters then jumped in to ask Burr his opinion on Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration.
“I don’t watch the news!” he replied. “I have no idea what’s going on.”
The stand-up comic joked that he spends most of his time watching silly videos on social media before, once again, insisting he was not qualified to discuss the state of the nation.
“I don’t think you should be asking a comedian,” he said. “You’re a journalist.”
When the newsman argued that comics are often “on top of current events,” Burr shot down the “weak” excuse.
“That’s you guys passing the buck. You guys need to have balls again — which you don’t,” he said.
Burr then called out the media for passing off opinions through third parties rather than just addressing hard topics themselves.
“You guys always go, ‘Should we be thinking this?’ You guys present stuff like that,” he concluded. “You guys used to have balls. You need to get your balls back. And it’s not my job. I am a dancing clown.”
Although the humorist did not want to discuss politics at the lighthearted event, he often shares his contrarian takes in his TV specials and late-night appearances.
Burr made headlines in January when he blasted insurance companies following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
While chatting about the Los Angeles wildfires on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the “Old Dads” star noted that the focus was on vandals and increased crime rather than healthcare bigwigs profiting off the natural disaster.
“CNN and Fox News are not going to bring up the insurance companies that are just gonna keep everybody’s premiums and still give themselves a bonus,” he said to applause from the studio audience.
“Yes! Free Luigi!” he added, changing the conversation from home insurance to health insurance.
Burr said he loved how insurance executives and media pundits “acted surprised” and questioned how something like Thomson’s murder “could happen.”
“[The killer] wrote on the bullets why it happened,” he said.
The bullets used to kill the 50-year-old exec were engraved with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” an apparent reference to the 2010 book “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.”
Burr has discussed his opinion on the December 2024 killing numerous times, calling the healthcare industry a “dirty game” led by “gangsters.”
He also told Variety in January that it was “funny” watching “CEOs have to be uncomfortable” after Thompson “got whacked.”
“I’m sure they didn’t learn anything, but it’s like: This is how you make everybody feel day to day as you apply pressure because ‘that’s how business is done,’” he told the outlet. “How you leave this burning wreckage of destroyed lives as you ‘restructure’ and ‘consolidate.’ It was fun to see them worry.”
Mangione, 26, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, for which he could face the death penalty.
