In a surprising turn of events, Sunday’s episode of HBO’s Crashing presented a pro-life message, despite the main character becoming an atheist in the second season premiere.
In the episode titled “Bill Burr,” Pete Holmes hangs out with comedian Bill Burr, who goes on a hilarious and accurate tirade pointing out the silliness of insisting that abortion isn’t killing a baby. Bill explains, “They're just sayin' because it doesn't look like a baby yet, it's not a baby. It's like, well, let 'em finish.”
Warning: This video contains explicit language.
Bill: Yeah, you don't wanna knock anybody up, either, you know what I mean?
Pete: I don't wanna...
Bill: Then you got to deal with the death of that shit, right? Not that I'm against abortion or anything, but, like...
Pete: Well, it's a complicated issue.
Bill: It really isn't. You're aborting a life. I'm not-- I'm not a fucking right-to-lifer, but, like, for those people who fuckin' you have an abortion, to sit there and say they didn't kill somebody, it's bullshit. 'Cause it's like, if you didn't do what the fuck you did, there would be a kid.
Pete: Just two white men on a golf course discussing reproductive rights.
Bill: No, just own up to it. They're just sayin' because it doesn't look like a baby yet, it's not a baby. It's like, well, let 'em finish.
Pete: It's like cake batter. It's like it's a tray of cake batter...
Bill: Perfect. Exactly! Yeah, and then they look at the batter and go, ‘Well, that's not a cake. I just didn't ruin your birthday.’ It's like, ‘It was gonna be a cake.’
Pete: If you left it in the oven.
Bill: Exactly.
Later, Bill repeats the conversation for a stand-up comedy show, adding, “Pro-choice, you know what annoys me? If they would just admit that they're killing a baby, I could get on board. 'Cause I'm big on, like, thinning out the herd.” Ignoring the fact that he’s supposedly okay with abortion despite believing it’s killing a baby, Bill gives very reasonable arguments against abortion.
Of course, the show still manages to slip in the line, “Just two white men on a golf course discussing reproductive rights,” as if that has anything to do with whether or not abortion results in the death of a baby. Additionally, in his stand-up routine, Bill calls Midwestern Trump supporters “Jesus freaks,” and claims that Trump’s version of making America great again is “dig[ging] up the Native Americans and kill[ing] ‘em all over again!”
Crashing isn’t the first show to surprise audiences with a pro-life message. Last summer, Hulu’s rampantly liberal show Casual ended its season with the assertion that abortion is “physical and psychological agony.” In a time where women are “shouting their abortions,” it’s comforting that even liberal TV can acknowledge the harm done by abortion, both to the baby and to the mother.
