When Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was released in 1999, the renowned film critic Roger Ebert wrote, “It’s the kind of picture those View n’ Brew theaters were made for, as long as you don’t view.” When the sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo came out in 2005, Ebert was harsher still, describing it as “aggressively bad, as if it wants to cause suffering to the audience.”Playing the title role of a tropical fish tank-cleaner-turned-gigolo was Rob Schneider. For the sequel, Schneider won the Golden Raspberry Award for “Worst Actor”, and in 2010, he was nominated for “Worst Actor of the Decade”.Some 15 years later, Schneider might have been expected to resurface in an even worse third instalment of the Bigalow franchise, or in another lowbrow Hollywood comedy. Instead, he appeared in a far more unlikely setting: a campaign video endorsing Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.Schneider’s entry into local politics may have surprised Hungarian fans of Deuce Bigalow, but it did not come out of nowhere.Over the past few years, Schneider has worked to establish himself as a leading conservative voice, railing against Hollywood’s supposed liberal bias. A frequent guest on Fox News, he has spoken publicly against diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and is vocally anti-trans and anti-vaccine. In a recent opinion piece, he claimed, …
