Success in the entertainment industry is a fickle thing. For example, at one point, it would have been fair to say that Dane Cook was the biggest comedian in the world. During this time, he was selling out Madison Square Garden, being referenced in pop culture on shows like Jeopardy!, and even Cook even auditioned for Steven Spielberg. After a series of romantic comedies that didn’t get the warmest critical reception, he fell victim to overexposure, but he’s still performing stand-up to huge crowds and maintains a rather loyal fanbase to this day. While he may have become a household name in his early 30s, other comics around that time arrived late to the party, and this includes Cook’s longtime friend Bill Burr.
Burr has appeared twice on the massively popular Disney+ show The Mandalorian, which of course takes place in the Star Wars universe. I caught up with Dane Cook to discuss his new special Above It All, which is when he relayed this story to me about recently calling out Burr for being a “hypocrite”:
Bill Burr and I did something back in Boston and we were back there a few months ago. And it was so interesting because Bill broke so much later in his career. We started together, and he breaks in his career and we're talking about how in like ‘91, I was talking incessantly about Star Wars one day and he was like, ‘I hate Star Wars.’ And I was like, ‘what?’ And we went at it and he was like, he doesn't like sci-fi. He's not into it. And he trashed it. And then I, you know, I'm with him a few months ago, and I’m like, ‘you're in The Mandalorian! You hypocrite!’
It’s well known that Bill Burr isn’t the biggest Star Wars fan, and in the past he had even gone so far as to criticize the fandom itself. Dane Cook, on the other hand, is a Star Wars superfan. If you watch the interview clip at the top of this article, you can see a slew of Star Wars memorabilia in his office, including Darth Vader and Kylo Ren's masks. The Mandalorian’s creator Jon Favreau didn’t seem to mind Burr’s feelings on the franchise, which in the end was the right move, as his character, Migs Mayfeld, has created some hilarious moments for the show.
Dane Cook was clearly just poking fun at his peer, as his comments contained no ill will, and he went on to applaud the comedian's entrepreneurial spirit:
He’s like, ‘I got it because Favreau knew that I did not like Star Wars.’ So talk about like just, you know, to be able to have long, long term relationships and then also to see so many comedians break through. Once I was kind of in my own moment it has been really cool to see actually how many stand ups have stayed entrepreneurial and just invested their time and effort into building that fanbase.
If you’re a fan of Bill Burr’s, he has a ton of content streaming right now. As for Dane Cook, his new special Above It All just had its live stream on Moments. If you missed it, not to worry, as the comic is currently shopping around for options to have the special live in a more permanent location. Until then, you can check out everything that’s available to watch with our list of 2022 TV premiere dates.
