Hannibal Buress has become a victim of his debilitating affliction known as having “no chill” after he was kicked offstage at a Chicago university Saturday for joking about the Roman Catholic Church’s history of sexual assault.
According to Consequence of Sound, before performing at Chicago’s Loyola University, a Jesuit college, Buress received an email dictating material and subject matter that was off-limits. Aside from profanity, the college informed the comedian that he should not talk about a number of topics, including race, illegal drug use or sexual assault.
To be fair, the administration at a Jesuit college might not have known Buruss’ material. Maybe they thought they were hiring reality-show star Kandi Burruss. Perhaps they thought they were hosting a lecture on the ancient Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca. Even Hannibal Lecter’s act is cleaner than Buress’. Hiring Hannibal Buress and forbidding him to talk about race is like booking Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway to give a joint lecture about the importance of telling the truth.
Buress, a Chicago native, decided to share the school’s correspondence with his audience. He opened his set by reading the email, followed by a rebuke of the college’s administration. “Bitch-ass old people. I can project,” he said before posting a copy of the email on the venue’s projection screen.
The comedian further expounded on the topic by posing a simple question to the college: “Y’all fuck kids, right?”
Apparently, the officials at the Roman Catholic-affiliated institution didn’t take the roasting too well, cutting Buress’ mic five minutes into his set.
Buress is known for his uncompromising style of comedy and for calling out sexual assault. Four years ago, a clip of him calling out Bill Cosby on decades of alleged sexual assault went viral after an audience member posted the video online.
In the 2014 recording, Buress encouraged everyone to Google “Bill Cosby” and “rape” after joking about a Cosby rant on comedians’ use of profanity. “Yeah, but you raped women, Bill Cosby,” Buress said. “So that kind of brings you down a couple notches.”
Many people point to that 2014 performance as the spark that ignited the firestorm that led to Cosby facing charges of sexual assault.
At Saturday’s concert, Buress was allowed to continue his performance after an extended 15-minute break during which students were outraged.
There is no word on whether Hannibal Buress’ performance at the Jeff Sessions-Donald Trump anti-sexual-assault-and-marijuana fundraiser has been canceled.