Modern-day soothsayer Hannibal Buress ran into a bit of trouble over the weekend after flouting Loyola University-Chicago’s restrictions on the content of his set, Uproxx reports. Apparently, just minutes into his routine, Buress shared an image from some correspondence he received from the Jesuit university about the topics that were off limits, including “rape, sexual assault, race, sexual orientation/gender.”
As Consequence Of Sound reports, Buress scoffed at the administration, saying “Bitch ass old people, I can project” as he shared a screenshot of the message telling him what he should avoid talking about. Buress then said, “Y’all fuck kids, right?,” a reference to the scores of allegations of child sexual abuse and subsequent cover-ups that have been leveled against the Roman Catholic Church around the world. We imagine he would have followed up with his review of Spotlight, but the actor-comedian was promptly asked to leave the stage.
The crowd was pissed off by the university’s intervention, so the timeout only lasted for 15 minutes, after which Buress returned to finish his set sans any other mention of the lawsuits and criminal prosecutions brought against the Roman Catholic Church. Some fans remarked that Loyola-Chicago’s response indicated that it must have been unfamiliar with Buress’ comedy and reputation—he helped bring the rape allegations against Bill Cosby back into the national discourse when he ranted about the conservative comedian in 2014—but given the admonitions he received when he signed on, it looks like they had some idea what they’re getting.
Update 4:05 p.m. CT: Per Variety, Loyola University-Chicago has confirmed that yep, Buress was cut off momentarily because he’d “violated the mutually agreed upon content restriction clause in his contract.” The statement goes on: “It is standard for the University to include a content restriction clause in entertainment contracts; Buress is the only entertainer to disregard the clause to the degree that his mic was cut. Buress eventually returned to the stage and completed his set.”