Rob Schneider on Woke Oscars: ‘People Have Checked Out’

They don’t hand out Academy Awards to movies like “Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo.”

That’s probably fine with the film’s star, Rob Schneider. He’s made a career out of making millions of people laugh with stand-up comedy, hit films like “Bigalow” and pairings with fellow “Saturday Night Live” alums Adam Sandler and Chris Rock.

Still, Schneider told “The Adam Carolla Podcast” this week how much the Oscars meant to him as a viewer for many years.

Not anymore.

The conversation started with Schneider sharing his thoughts on “Spaceman,” the 2024 drama starring his old chum, Adam Sandler. Schneider got a sneak peek at the film, slated for release sometime next year.

Schneider suggested it could snag his fellow “Saturday Night Live” alum a Best Actor nomination. Sandler’s previous roles, including work in “Uncut Gems” and “Punch-Drunk Love,” also sparked Oscar buzz.

“He may get an Academy Award before it’s all said and done,” Carolla said about Sandler’s impressive body of work outside the comedy canon.

“If he’s not nominated for [‘Spaceman’], they don’t even count. Not that they count anyway,” Schneider added, tearing into new Oscar diversity mandates .

“It used to be 100 million people [watching the Oscars telecast],” he said. “Now that the Academy Awards are saying, ‘you have to have 40 percent in LGBTQ+’ … people have checked out because they realize this isn’t the best anymore. 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 continued.

NOTE: The highest-rated Oscars telecast remains 1973’s edition which drew 85 million viewers. The most recent Oscars telecast attracted 18.7 million viewers.

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

The podcaster noted the scandal surrounding Harvard President Claudine Gay as an example. The academic’s tone-deaf testimony on Capitol Hill, combined with plagiarism charges, suggest she’ll be looking for a new gig any second.

Yet Harvard’s leaders are standing by Gay.

Harvard only standing by Claudine Gay as too scared to ‘fire its first black president,’ claims professor she’s accused of plagiarizing https://t.co/DTcw5ZfgTc pic.twitter.com/R87ZVtHOvI

— New York Post (@nypost) December 13, 2023

Carolla noted how Gay’s race and gender matters in today’s woke world.

“Oh, black female. Hmmm. Was she the most qualified for that [position]?’ The second that thought enters your head, and it has to now because they foisted it upon us,” Carolla said. “Joe Biden said, if you’re not black and a female, then you need not apply for the second-most important position in the world, which is Vice President of the United States.”

“And then we went, ‘Oh, so maybe Kamala Harris isn’t the most qualified to do this,’ and then she made all our nightmares come true by being horrific at her job and setting the movement back 25 years,” Carolla said.

RELATED: WOKE OSCARS SAVED BY AWARD-WINNING MELTDOWN

Carolla steered the chat back to the Oscars.

“When the Academy Awards go, ‘we’re gonna have 40 percent 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? Is ‘Moonlight’ the best film of the year? Or are you guys doing this …” Carolla added, his voice trailing off.

The podcaster brought up sports as the ultimate meritocracy, a place where audiences know the best of the best are on the field.

Period.

“That’s why we’re all secretly and unknowingly attracted to sports,” Carolla said. “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.”