EXCLUSIVE: Rob Schneider opens up about his friendship with Charlie Kirk: ‘He changed my thinking’



It started as a practical joke.

Rob Schneider teases that his pal Adam Sandler created his, “You can do it!” line from 1998’s “The Waterboy” so people would harass him wherever he went.

'When you have your friend Charlie Kirk murdered ... I don’t know what else you can do but fight for this country.'

And they do, Schneider playfully tells Align, whether he’s having dinner or just walking down the street. It helps that the actor repeated the line in five subsequent films, including last year’s “Happy Gilmore 2.”

“It’s still happening,” Schneider says of the fan reaction. So he decided to lean into the catchphrase. The quote inspired the You Can Do It Foundation, a group that celebrates faith, family, and freedom through the arts — Schneider is the official spokesperson.

Now that nonprofit has teamed up with the American Rights Alliance, an organization that defends constitutional rights through legal advocacy, public policy, and education.

We can do it

Together, the groups created You Can Do It, America! The national initiative will promote “values-driven” media and educational outreach.

And boy, is that content needed today, he says.

Modern schools are “taken over by communist teachers who are now more interested in taking kids out of the classroom to protest against the president who is not the party they approve of and tearing down the structure of our society,” the comic actor says. “We need to have stories to remind people how exceptional the United States is.”

“There may have been 117 billion human beings in the history of the world, but less than 1% of them got to live in a society that has free speech and are able to cast a ballot and were able to benefit from their own labors,” he adds.

It’s serious, sober stuff from the man also known as “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.”

Sacrifice in stride

Schneider’s expansive show-business career began with his standout work on “Saturday Night Live” (1990-1994). He segued seamlessly to the big screen (“The Animal,” “The Hot Chick,” “The Benchwarmers,” “Grown Ups 1 and 2”) while continuing to tour as a stand-up comedian.

He’s still working — he’ll return to the “Grown Ups” franchise next year and reprise the voice of the principal in “Leo 2.” But the roles aren’t coming as frequently as in the past.

That’s not an accident.

“I’ve suffered personally and professionally [for speaking out], but compared to what the ultimate sacrifice is, what Charlie Kirk went through,” he says, his voice trailing off. Failing to make another “Deuce Bigalow” sequel pales in comparison.

Fast friends

Kirk wasn’t just a political figure Schneider admired from afar. The two became friends after Schneider began appearing at Turning Point USA events, including joining Kirk on his college tour. In October 2024, the two appeared together at Grand Canyon University in Arizona, where Schneider got an up-close look at Kirk’s exchanges with students.

Schneider has since said that the experience changed his own thinking. “Charlie did for me what he did for so many university students across this country,” he told an AmFest 2025 audience last December. “He dismantled foundational thinking.”

What seems to have stayed with Schneider most, however, was the way Kirk treated the students who disagreed with him. “Charlie respected the dignity of every human being with love, with Christ’s love,” he said in an interview shortly after Kirk's murder.

“It was this summer that I’d realized he was a true, authentic American genius,” Schneider said. “He had the intellect and the love of country.”

RELATED: The gift of turning 60

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Media malfeasance

Kirk comes up repeatedly during our own conversation, which we're having shortly after the one-year anniversary of Kirk's murder. Schneider shows real passion when he describes what his friend brought to the culture and why his voice mattered.

He's also furious at what he sees as the media’s character assassination of the late leader. Media outlets, he argues, too often regurgitate false or misleading quotes about Kirk, staining the man’s legacy in the process.

Then-Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah wrote this following Kirk’s death:

“Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is ... not the same as violence.”

The Post subsequently fired Attiah over her social media posts, although an arbitrator later ordered the newspaper to reinstate her with back pay.

Never mind that Kirk never once "espoused violence" in any of his many public appearances.

“They can repeat it without being accused of character assassination or being liable for slander ... an accusation being enough proof," says Schneider.

"That’s what runs on social media."

Swimming to Cuba

He’s equally aghast that the Democrats are embracing communism anew, ignoring the ugly historical precedents.

“When the Iron Curtain fell ... no one was running to go into communist East Germany ... nobody’s swimming to get to Cuba,” he says, later paraphrasing Milton Friedman’s famous line.

“There’s never been a system that has taken more people out of poverty [than capitalism],” he says.

Schneider’s new initiative opens up a world of possibilities, allowing for stories that Hollywood won’t touch.

“I want to see a movie about someone who is de-transitioned, and that’s a TV series I’d like to make,” he says. Schneider also suggests projects about political dissidents here in the U.S., folks who have been targeted by groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Schneider has built up decades of goodwill with his warmhearted comedies and timeless “SNL” routines. But something else has connected him to his fans in recent years: his willingness to speak boldly about the state of the country in ways that most celebrities would never attempt.

“I can’t go anywhere without someone coming up and hugging me, shaking my hand. 'Thank you for speaking up and being our voice,'” he says. “I’m just a simple comedian. I’m a college dropout ... I make silly movies, but at a certain point I’m fed up. And if I can speak for some Americans and make them feel emboldened ...”

“When you have your friend Charlie Kirk murdered ... I don’t know what else you can do but fight for this country, in a way that I can, through the culture and whatever platform I have,” he says.

Antifa burns, the media spin, and truth takes the hits



On Monday night, violence erupted at UC Berkeley. Again.

That sentence alone might not shock anyone. Berkeley and riots go together like gender studies and Marxist slogans — a tradition older than most of its students. But this time, the target was different.

Christians and conservatives should keep showing up. Every TPUSA Faith event, every lecture, every debate — attend them. The more witnesses, the less room for lies.

The mob didn’t come for a politician or a protest. It came for families.

The crowd surrounded a Turning Point USA Faith event hosted by an officially recognized student club, featuring Christian apologist Frank Turek and atheist Peter Boghossian, along with comedian Rob Schneider and British commentator and satirist Andrew Doyle. In one evening, TPUSA offered more intellectual diversity than the entire Berkeley humanities department has managed all year.

The riot that proved the stereotype

Picture families walking into a campus hall to hear a Christian and an atheist debate civilly. Now picture an angry crowd blocking the doors, throwing bottles, lighting fires, and chanting, “Punch a fascist in the face!”

Their only problem: No fascists were present. Unless, of course, you classify Turek, Boghossian, and a few Christian undergrads as Mussolini’s heirs. But that’s Berkeley logic — where “diversity” means everyone thinks the same and disagreement is treated like violence.

The radical left has no greater enemies than Christianity and free speech. Combine the two, and leftists melt down faster than a Berkeley sophomore trying to define the word “woman.”

How did we get here?

Berkeley has been the stage for riots since the 1960s. If campus unrest were Broadway, Berkeley would be “The Phantom of the Opera” — always running, always loud, always masked. But tradition doesn’t excuse terror.

The deeper problem is the culture feeding it. In today’s universities, students are marinated in ideology, not inquiry. The humanities have traded Socrates for slogans and replaced debate with denunciation.

This worldview breeds fragility and fanaticism: emotional dependence on outrage, intellectual intolerance, and the conviction that disagreement equals danger. It’s no wonder students' activism now mimics the very authoritarianism they claim to resist.

Antifa’s unofficial motto might as well be: “Accuse your opponents of what you plan to do.”

The media’s complicity

Right on cue, the Guardian rushed to describe the riot as “mostly peaceful.” That phrase should be Berkeley’s new marketing slogan: Mostly Peaceful Since 1964.

The truth is simpler. The TPUSA attendees were peaceful. The rioters were not. They screamed in people’s faces, hurled debris, blocked exits, and called it “defending democracy.” Apparently, democracy now means assaulting Christians.

The radical playbook

If you want to decode the left’s method, just reverse the leftists' accusations. They say, “Don’t demonize others,” while labeling everyone to the right of Lenin a fascist. They say, “All voices deserve to be heard,” while drowning opponents in primal screams.

They say, “Fight oppression,” while physically intimidating families trying to attend a faith event.

At Arizona State University, a colleague of mine once wrote, “I’m all for free speech — but not for bigots,” to justify banning Charlie Kirk from campus. Translation: I love freedom — as long as no one I dislike exercises it.

This is the moral logic of the modern left: Disagreement equals harm, and harm justifies censorship — or violence.

The 'radical' minority that isn’t

We keep calling these leftists radicals, but that implies rarity. Surveys say otherwise. The ideological monoculture dominates academia. The “moderate left” isn’t moderating anything; it’s supplying the radicals with silence, funding, and applause.

The tenured class that claims to value “diversity of thought” has created an institution where dissenters are treated like heretics.

RELATED: The Antifa mob at Berkeley showed us what evil looks like

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

What must be done

First, Christians and conservatives should keep showing up. Every TPUSA Faith event, every lecture, every debate — attend them. The more witnesses, the less room for lies.

Second, tell your state legislators you don’t want tax dollars funding violent intolerance disguised as higher learning.

Third, warn every parent and student what really happens on college campuses. Prepare your kids to challenge the ideological orthodoxy behind DEI, critical theory, and the alphabet soup of new moral dogmas.

Finally, support alternatives. Seek out institutions that teach truth instead of propaganda — and organizations like TPUSA Faith that defend free inquiry.

That’s why I started my Substack: to expose the rot inside American universities before your children discover it the hard way.

The cure for intellectual darkness is light. The cure for ideological riots is courage. And the cure for the Berkeley disease begins with showing up, speaking truth, and refusing to bow.

AI has shown us the face of Christ. Will it bring more to the faith?



Every generation gets to choose whether or not to abandon Christianity. In 2,000 years, no generation has fully walked away.

The irony is hard to miss: The very tool we feared might render faith obsolete has given us the most human image of Jesus yet. Science, thought to replace God, is now part of the process that brings us back to Him.

Christianity isn’t merely a story that’s been retold for millennia; it is the story. It’s the one that never grows old, never fades with the times.

Sometimes, the new chapters of this story come in the most unexpected ways. A recent example is how the Shroud of Turin — a centuries-old relic long thought to be a medieval hoax — found its way back into the public conversation.

Best of all, it wasn’t a miracle that rekindled interest in the cloth. It was science.

From skepticism to wonder

For decades, modern skepticism relegated the Shroud of Turin to the realm of medieval forgery, debunked by carbon-dating tests in the 1980s.

Science was supposed to bring clarity, to expose the myths that faith had built. But here we are again. The Shroud has returned, and this time, it is technology itself that has reignited the mystery.

Former "Saturday Night Live" star and recent Catholic convert Rob Schneider was so inspired by his encounter with the relic that's he's making a movie about it. "It breathed life into me," he explains.

It’s not just Schneider. The Shroud’s reappearance on the world stage reveals something far bigger.

Science, which was once so sure it could unmask religion’s mysteries, is now revealing new layers. Tiny particles of pollen, identified through advanced equipment, suggest that the cloth’s origins trace back to the Middle East — specifically Israel. New scientific methods like wide-angle X-ray scattering dated the Shroud far earlier than previously thought — around A.D. 55.

The lines between myth and reality are blurring. Science, once believed to be Christianity’s greatest adversary, is suddenly taking a seat at the table of faith.

AI gave us the face of the Lord

But it’s not just relics like the Shroud that are undergoing a digital transformation. Technology is now playing a central role in how we encounter faith.

The face of Jesus — something people have dreamed of, imagined, and painted for millennia — has been recreated by artificial intelligence. Using data from the Shroud and other sources, AI systems have attempted to render what may be the most accurate depiction of Christ’s face.

It’s a face that’s both familiar and new. The long hair, the beard, the haunting eyes — eyes that seem to look into not just the world but each of us, individually, deeply.

The irony is hard to miss: The very tool we feared might render faith obsolete has given us the most human image of Jesus yet. Science, thought to replace God, is now part of the process that brings us back to Him.

As we hurtle deeper into the digital age, we’ve been conditioned to seek meaning in data, in pixels and screens, in algorithms that shape our reality.

And yet these same tools are leading us back to questions that are profoundly ancient. The face of Christ, now digitized and rendered in high definition, serves as a reminder: The divine is not so easily replaced.

Back to the heart of belief

For centuries, the Christian faith has thrived on a core paradox: to believe without seeing. When the apostle Thomas doubted the resurrection, Jesus appeared and offered his wounds as proof. "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed," He added (John 20:29).

He was talking about us. You and me.

Now, in the 21st century, science is offering glimpses of what once seemed impossible to prove.

While we may never confirm the Shroud’s authenticity beyond a shadow of a doubt, the mere possibility forces us to grapple with something bigger. Faith isn’t about what’s seen — it’s about what transcends sight. And sometimes, when technology allows us to glimpse the mysteries of old, it invites us to marvel rather than dismiss.

The resurrection has always tested human comprehension. It’s a story of victory over death, a promise at the heart of the Christian faith.

As AI constructs the face of Christ and science re-examines ancient relics, the digital world and the divine collide in unexpected ways. We aren’t abandoning faith; we’re rediscovering it through the very tools meant to replace it, tools that allow us to stare deeply into that unmistakable face, those never-ending eyes.

Rob Schneider removed from charity event for 'offensive' jokes about trans people that allegedly made audience members cry



Comedian Rob Schneider was reportedly removed from the stage of a fundraising event for a charity after he made jokes about vaccines and transgender people, which offended audience members.

Schneider was allegedly asked to end his set early during an event for the Hospitals of Regina Foundation in Saskatchewan, Canada, at a Four Seasons hotel.

The comic's jokes and commentary apparently offended several audience members, with one person in attendance claiming that Schneider's words even made some audience members cry.

"I really felt strongly after seeing many people ... some were in tears, some were incredibly upset, people were leaving the room, that I just said to myself [that] I can't sit by and do nothing," said attendee Tynan Allan. Schneider was saying things that were "very anti-vaccinations" and "very against trans folks," Allan told CBC News, Canada's state broadcaster.

'We do not condone, accept, endorse or share Mr. Schneider's positions, as expressed during his comedy set.'

Described by the outlet as a "diversity expert," Allan also claimed he heard "misogynistic things" before he decided to complain to event organizers.

"I went up and and asked to speak to the organizers of the event, at first they were incredibly dejective [sic] and sort of saying 'well, we're not going to do anything and we hired this guy and lots of people are laughing, so why would we shut him down?'"

Allan said he complained to organizers that Schneider's content was "completely inappropriate and offensive and really filled with hatred."

"We have to recognize what [Pride] day means to people, especially in a hospital setting where people go through gender-affirming care and reproductive care and fertility treatments," Allan continued. Eventually, the foundation acquiesced and asked Schneider to leave the stage, with the activist alleging that security was "waiting to escort him out."

The foundation later released statements on Schneider's appearance, apologizing and saying that organizers did not agree with the comedian's statements.

"While we recognize that in a free and democratic society individuals are entitled to their views and opinions and that comedy is intended to be edgy, the content, positions and opinions expressed during Mr. Schneider's set do not align with the values of our Foundation and team," the foundation said in a statement, according to Global News.

"We do not condone, accept, endorse or share Mr. Schneider's positions, as expressed during his comedy set and acknowledge that in this instance the performance did not meet the expectations of our audience and our team," the group continued. "An unconditional apology was offered right after to our guests and our community. We reiterate this sincere and unconditional apology today, for any offense caused by Mr. Schneider's recent comedy set, at the Four Seasons Ball."

The foundation reportedly stated that Schneider calmly left the stage when he was asked.

Schneider has not yet made public remarks about the event, and his representation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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'People have checked out': Rob Schneider mocks the Oscars, says 'ideology of idiocy' turns people off



Actor and comedian Rob Schneider said that the Academy Awards have largely turned people off by pushing woke ideologies and implementing mandates based on sexual identities.

Schneider spoke to fellow comedian and podcaster Adam Carolla on "The Adam Carolla Podcast," and the conversation eventually veered to the Oscars, as Schneider referenced longtime friend Adam Sandler's recent film.

"If he’s not nominated for [‘Spaceman’], they don’t even count. Not that they count anyway," Schneider said of the award show, according to Hollywood in Toto.

"It used to be 100 million people [watching the Oscars]," he continued. "Now that the Academy Awards are saying, ‘You have to have 40% in LGBTQ+’ … people have checked out because they realize this isn’t the best any more. It’s just how far they can suck up to this particular ideology of idiocy. It turns people off. It turns me off. I haven’t watched in years," Schneider went on.

The Oscars have significantly fallen off over the years in terms of viewership; however, 2023's show had an audience of 18.7 million, the academy's largest since 2020. It was also the most-watched award show on any network in three years, Entertainment Weekly reported.

Still, the numbers are a far cry from the 1973 record-setting show that was watched by 85 million viewers.

"I think the chickens are coming home to roost," Carolla added. "When you start introducing question marks into people’s heads, that’s when the franchise is over."

"When the Academy Awards go, ‘We’re gonna have 40% of this group represented, and we need X amount of handicapped and X amount of gay and lesbians represented … then we as watchers, go, ‘Is that really, then, the best film?'" Carolla pontificated

Carolla added that the reason he believes many people are "secretly and unknowingly attracted to sports" is because it offers a meritocracy.

"When the Seattle [Seahawks] defense goes out there, and there’s 10 black guys and one white guy on the defensive side of the ball, we don’t start breaking it up into race. We just go, ‘I guess those are the 11 best guys on the team.’ Which you definitely do not do with politics or certainly all the awards shows now."

Schneider, who recently expressed that he had become Catholic, has given advice for people struggling find sense in the ever-indoctrinating, woke landscape of the world.

"Be aware that you are part of all of it and that the separateness you sometimes feel is an illusion. ... How can I continue to hold a grudge against the actor who shamed people like me? ... It is forgiveness itself that is the gift that we give ourselves because it frees us," he added, citing his belief in Jesus.

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Actor Rob Schneider has found Jesus Christ



At 60 years old, Rob Schneider has had a long, eventful career in Hollywood.

However, a lot has changed since his early days — including his recent conversion to Catholicism after “going through life slugging along and ignoring God.”

Telling Glenn Beck the story of this major life change, Schneider quotes his late friend and comedian Norm Macdonald, “We are a small fraction of the universe, so if there is such a thing as compassion and love and empathy, then it must be endemic to this whole thing that we exist in.”

“That little voice of Jesus Christ was always coming back to me, even though I was going away from him,” he adds.

Schneider explains that as evil became more obvious in the world, his faith became harder to ignore.

“If there is this really organized evil in the world, and I don’t think it’s at all more powerful, but I do think it’s here to challenge us individually, as a family, as a community, and I think also as you and I, you know, have come to really understand now — as a nation,” he tells Glenn.

Glenn mentions Christ’s forgiveness, which some people use against believers who reject transgenderism or men in women’s sports.

“So they’re trying to say that ‘see, you haven’t really changed because you’re not forgiving all of those things as well,’” Glenn says.

Like Glenn, Schneider disagrees with this idea.

“Christ doesn’t want us to just stand down and accept evil and forgive evil and let it perpetuate. Christ wants us to stand up against it,” Schneider says.

Not only do we have to stand up against evil in general, but even more so when it comes to children.

“We cannot stand down, when you know, especially the most vulnerable members of our society are now under attack,” Schneider explains, adding that those on the side of mutilating children “use our good will against us, which is inherently evil.”


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The gift of turning 60



I celebrated my 60th birthday last week. I want to thank all of the lovely people for their kind birthday wishes. I am the luckiest man in the world. I have a wonderful partner in life in my beautiful wife, Patricia, and three lovely daughters, Elle, Miranda, and Madeline.

Turning 60 reminded me of something Dr. M. Scott Peck told me over 30 years ago: At 40, you feel like you can conquer the world, and there is a sense that nothing can stop you. But at 60, you realize the very real fragility of life and the temporariness of it all. It’s humbling to know there is indeed a time limit for all things and that God’s design, though perfect, is precious far beyond its brevity.

I am also reminded of the Hindu story that my friend Bill from Lowell, Arkansas, shared with me about a man at his funeral. “Would this man lying here ask for more riches and gold from the world? Would this man ask to be more famous and well regarded by others? Would he ask to be taller or look more handsome?”

“No. The only thing this man lying here today would ask for was much simpler: more time.”

If you are reading this now, then you, too, have time! Use it wisely. Use it unwisely, too! But use it. Be in it. Be aware that you are part of all of it and that the separateness you sometimes feel is an illusion. Just as your heart beats without being told, you are as integral to the sun that fires and the planets that circle it as your heart is to you.

For the atheists, God loves you, too. The mistake you make is to think the universe is a stupid thing that just bumps into things and expands ignorantly and without reason or intelligence. And that somehow, we human beings, with our intelligence, emerged as just some kind of freak universal accident. To you, I say: If kindness, empathy, compassion, and love exist, those things exist because you found them in other people.

As my dear friend Norm Macdonald once said, “We are part of this universe, indeed a mere fraction of it, so if we have kindness and love, how much more the universe itself.” For if we are capable of love, it is because it is endemic to the universe itself. To quote Alan Watts, “For we didn’t come 'in' to the world, we came 'out' of it. We are the universe evolving to the point of consciousness, so that the universe, us, can experience existence and life in all its wonder and beauty and glorious exuberance.”

Lastly, as I am a new convert to Catholicism, I offer my apology for my lack of Christ’s forgiveness to my fellow man. I was so angry at the people who shut down schools — who shut down the world! — and who coerced others to do things against their will, which hurt many people deeply. I offer my unconditional forgiveness and amnesty.

How can I stay mad at the famous singer who would not let others into his Broadway show unless they had an experiential jab? I will never forget how kind he was to me and my friends when he was the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live.”

How can I continue to hold a grudge against the actor who shamed people like me but who has been such a great example for other actors never to give up and keep fighting for their dreams?

How can I remain angry at the lovely actress who said she could no longer be friends with people like me who didn’t “get it,” knowing how incredibly kind she is with every child she meets?

I am humbled by the example of my mother, Pilar, and how she was able to forgive the occupiers of her Philippines in World War II who killed both of her brothers. At last, it is forgiveness itself that is the gift that we give ourselves because it frees us as Jesus Christ intends for all of us to be free. For His gift of ultimate and unlimited forgiveness is indeed the gift for all humanity. May God bless you and your families now and forever.

Rob Schneider moved out of California because he doesn't want the 'Democratic Party trying to run my life'



Comedian and actor Rob Schneider is one of the latest celebrities to flee California.

During an interview with "Fox & Friends," Schneider explained why he moved from California to Arizona.

“I really feel like I don’t want the Democratic Party trying to run my life," Schneider stated. "And there’s not one aspect of your life that they don’t want to interfere with."

He added, "I've had it with them, so I got out of California to the slightly freer state of Arizona."

Schneider admitted that he used to be a Democrat because "you have to be if you live in San Francisco."

He said that high taxes were a reason that got him to leave the Democratic Party.

Schneider said that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) pushed him "over the edge."

He planned to live in San Francisco for his entire life, but the regulations and homeless issues forced him to escape California.

The comedic actor joked, "San Francisco either has a huge homeless problem or a gigantic camping success story."

He admitted that he is worried that being an outspoken conservative could cost him acting jobs in Hollywood.

Schneider said, "A lot of people that I'm friends in Hollywood, they lean towards the right, but they're just scared of it because it really is like a mob of ideologues. They will attack you."

He said the left subscribes to a "religious architecture" of political thinking.

"It's really weird, you know something is wrong when people say putting God, and family, and country first is somehow controversial," he said, adding, "How is that controversial?"

The former "Saturday Night Live" star advised, "At a certain point you have to say, 'Enough of this.'"

Schneider has been an outspoken critic of Newsom's policies – especially the draconian restrictions implemented during the pandemic. He has also lambasted San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D).

Actor Mark Wahlberg recently announced that he was moving out of California to give his children a "better life."

In 2020, prolific podcaster Joe Rogan moved from California to Texas because of pandemic lockdowns and overcrowding.

You can watch the entire Rob Schneider interview below.

Rob Schneider: I’ve had it with the Democratic Party! www.youtube.com

Indie Comedy ‘Daddy Daughter Trip’ Embarks Where National Lampoon Left Off

With the sacrifices that go into it, the most minor victory as a family can pop with unequaled hilarity and joy.