Navigate Select ESC Close

BILL BURR IS GIGA-F*CKED | The Kyle Kulinski Show

2025-10-13 News & Politics
400.5k
20.3k
6.5k
Secular Talk
Secular Talk
2.3m subscribers

Kyle Kulinski Deconstructs Bill Burr’s Defense of Accepting Saudi Payments

Understand exactly why Bill Burr's defense for taking millions from the Saudi regime failed to resonate with his audience and how this incident compromised his standing as an anti-establishment voice.

Short Summary

  • Burr aggressively defended accepting over $1.6 million for a Riad comedy festival without exhibiting self-criticism.
  • The host argues Burr engaged in blatant hypocrisy, comparing the payment to taking money from the Gestapo if they paid.
  • Burr's defense tactic involved mischaracterizing criticism and accusing genuine fans of having racial biases for holding him to moral standards.
  • This episode explores the line between principled politics and accepting immense wealth from authoritarian sources, regardless of claimed good intentions.

The segment analyzes comedian Bill Burr’s ongoing defense regarding his performance at a Saudi Arabian comedy festival, for which he reportedly earned over $1.6 million. The host critiques Burr’s insistence that he is promoting free speech in the region, arguing instead that Burr is utilizing "cope" to justify accepting "blood money" from a regime committing widespread human rights abuses. This analysis contrasts Burr’s actions with his established rhetoric, concluding that his refusal to apologize has effectively torched his reputation among skeptical progressive viewers.

Unlock all features

FREE: Get instant access to 10 AI summaries, chats, or transcripts per day.

Description

Support The Show On Patreon!: https://www.patreon.com/seculartalk Subscribe to Krystal Kyle & Friends On Substack!: https://krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com Join our Discord!: https://discord.gg/teyN4ce Follow Kyle on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kylekulinski "The first time I ever really listened to Kyle Kulinski’s show was in the back of a cab last summer. The driver had his phone hooked up through the stereo and was pumping out an episode through the car speakers — loudly, as if looking to convert a captive audience. “Do you like Kyle Kulinski?” The driver, Ahmed, was a recent immigrant and apparently a die-hard fan of Secular Talk, the political talk show that Kulinski broadcasts on YouTube. I told him, yes, in fact. I do like Kulinski, had come across his show several years ago, and, all things considered, he seemed pretty good. “He understands what we’re up against,” Ahmed said. “Like Bernie.” But I was surprised to hear Kulinski’s name mentioned in the same breath as Bernie Sanders, particularly with such adoration. Because what I did remember about Kulinski’s show struck me as mostly capital-P “progressive” takes on the news — the left wing of the Netroots crowd more than the democratic socialism Sanders has popularized. It’s an impression that wasn’t entirely incorrect. “I have no time for philosophical, airy bullshit,” Kulinski tells me from his home in Westchester, New York. “I don’t want to hear about Lenin. I don’t want to hear about Marx. I just want a super plainspoken, straightforward agenda with a straightforward way of selling it.” With over 800,000 subscribers and nearly 670 million total views on YouTube, selling a progressive agenda is clearly something Kulinski knows how to do — even Democracy Now, the long-standing flagship of progressive media, cannot match his reach on the platform. Chapo Trap House can certainly boast a wildly devoted fan base (and a not insignificant degree of media influence), but their audience is roughly half the size of Kulinski’s. While Secular Talk might be more likely to be looped in with the progressive networks around Air America and Pacifica alums like Sam Seder than the more resolutely socialist world, Kulinski’s fiery rhetoric, razor-sharp class instincts, and knack for withering takedowns sets him apart from his peers. Judging by his rhetoric alone, he’s closer to a Eugene Debs than a Chris Hayes. But unlike Hayes, Amy Goodman, or his friend Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks — who began airing Secular Talk on his web network seven years ago — the thirty-two-year-old Kulinski is virtually invisible in the mainstream media. Despite his enormous fan base, his show has never once been mentioned in the obligatory trend pieces on “the Millennial Left” pumped out by the prestige media. Nor has Kulinski’s name ever popped up at all in the New York Times, Vox, the New Yorker, New York Magazine, or the Washington Post, despite his leading role in cofounding Justice Democrats, the organization widely credited with sweeping Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of “the Squad” to power. Just last week, his Wikipedia page was deleted. The reason? “There is very simply no [reliable source] coverage of this person,” according to one moderator. In new media, he’s king — the Sean Hannity of the Berniecrat left. In old media, he’s nobody. I suspect there are a few reasons for that. There is nothing “cool” about Kulinski’s show. (As a friend put it, “‘Welcome to Secular Talk’ sounds like something you’d hear on Egyptian radio.”) His no-nonsense social-democratic politics won’t get him much cred with the Full Communism crowd. He records his show not in Brooklyn or Los Angeles, but in a studio he built himself in his modest Westchester home. His hair is too groomed and his taste in clothes too preppy to qualify as “Dirtbag Left.” Nor has he ever attended an n+1 release party. “Not only have I not attended one,” he says, “I have no idea what that means.” And yet he’s astonishingly plugged-in for a young man in the suburbs. Wondering how Sanders ended up on the Joe Rogan Experience? Kulinski, a frequent guest on Rogan’s wildly popular show, introduced them. “You make the most sense to me,” Rogan told Kulinski on a recent episode. “You’re a normal person.” Much like Sanders himself, Kulinski’s show has a massive audience that just doesn’t compute with our media’s understanding of “what the kids want” or even “what the left-wing kids want.” It’s probably for the best — the very woke and very WASP-ish decorum haunting much of the media world is nowhere to be found in Secular Talk. “Corporate Democrats over-focus on identity as a trick to divert you from the issues that unite us all — class issues,” he said on a recent episode. Read More Here!: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/03/kyle-kulinski-bernie-bros-secular-talk-joe-rogan-youtube #KyleKulinski #SecularTalk #news #politics #youtube #biden #economics #left #progressive #viral

Top Comments (10)

@vilas9781 2025-10-13

Bill chose the weirdest hill to die on.

3.3k 134 replies
@gzucc 2025-10-13

He sounds nervous which is something I've never heard in his voice before. He knows he fucked up.

3.0k 62 replies
@Mr_Quimper 2025-10-13

“A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man.” - Malcolm X

1.4k 37 replies
@AlbesADV 2025-10-13

Saudi Arabia knew exactly this would work because you can reliably count on Americans greed. Greed here is praised and revered as a good quality

1.1k 34 replies
@yol.7177 2025-10-13

Burr almost sounds like he’s having a breakdown.

697 22 replies
@fettbub92 2025-10-14

Ill keep saying it. Bill Burr has become someone he used to make fun of.

568 20 replies
@Alsatiagent 2025-10-14

Mr. Burr is already quite wealthy. He did not even need this gig.

303 11 replies
@footsteps2179 2025-10-14

I hate to morally grandstand, but watching Bill double down on the Saudi money is insane. I am so tired of morally bankrupt people.

230 11 replies
@Chronix- 2025-10-13

Cashed out his career for a mere 1.6 million. What a fool.

190 5 replies
@Sweetsbyrenaeee 2025-10-18

The woman laughing is low key pissing me off. 😂😂😂

4

Unlock the Data Inside
Turn Videos into Knowledge

  • Get FREE 10/day: transcripts, summaries, chats
  • Chat with videos, export text & PDF
  • $1 free API credit for RAG, chatbots & research

Free forever plan • All features unlocked

App screenshot