Comedian Bill Burr has prompted outrage online after using women, Black people, those vulnerable to COVID-19 and the LGBTQI community as punchlines during his monologue on Saturday Night Live.
Burr began his bit by praising the audience for wearing masks, before joking that those who don't were doing the world a favour by "stopping reproducing".
"Take out your grandparents," he said about anti-maskers.
"Take out your weak cousin with asthma. I don't care. It's your decision. There's too many people. It's a dream come true. If you're that dumb and you want to kill your own family members, by all means do it. It stops you from reproducing."
One Twitter user who identified themselves as "the weak cousin with asthma" told Burr they found his monologue "insensitive and appalling".
Burr also claimed that having a whole month dedicated to Gay Pride was "a little long for a group of people that were never enslaved".
"The black people were actually enslaved. They get February, they get 28 days of overcast weather... How about you hook them up with July? These are equator people," he said.
The controversial stand-up performance ignited a firestorm on social media, where many viewers were so outraged they had to change the channel.
"You don't know what it's like to live w/this disease," they continued. "Especially in the age of COVID. It's not a joke. It's a scary reality for which I have to be vigilant every day. Show some class and sensitivity."
Burr then turned his attention to "white women," asserting that they had overly involved themselves in the "woke movement," before adding: "I don't want to speak ill of my bitches here, OK?"
"But let's go back in history here. You guys stood by us toxic white males through centuries of our crimes against humanity. You rolled around in the blood money. And occasionally, when you wanted to sneak off and hook up with a Black dude, if you got caught, you said it wasn't consensual," he continued.
"Who told Bill Burr he, a straight white man, should try to tackle homophobia and racism in the worst way possible in his SNL monologue?" one Twitter user asked.
"Jokes were in poor taste, not funny. As a gay man in an interracial relationship we were both offended and turned the channel. Who approved that monologue?” said another.
"Bill Burr's opening monologue is just obnoxious and misogynistic," offered a third. "It's 2020. Someone tell him calling women 'bitches' isn't funny."
Burr appeared to ignore the backlash, calling his appearance the "night of his life" in a tweet the following day.
"No words to describe how much fun that experience was!" he said.
