Bill Burr slams Howie Mandel for surprising him with possible half-brother Billy Corgan

USA Today

29-01-2025

Bill Burr slams Howie Mandel for surprising him with possible half-brother Billy Corgan
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Bill Burr isn't happy with Howie Mandel.
During a Monday appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," the comedian, 56, slammed Mandel for surprising him with Billy Corgan during a recent podcast interview. Mandel framed the ambush as a family reunion, as Corgan previously theorized that Burr might be his half-brother.
While Burr expressed annoyance in the original interview, fans were unsure whether he was mad or if he was only joking. On "The Rich Eisen Show," though, Burr suggested he definitely did not approve of Mandel's stunt.
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Mandel for comment.
"Howie did what he did because he is a Hollywood whore, and he doesn't care what happens," Burr said. "He could have said something, and he just brings up all that weirdness. ... I did not appreciate what Howie did. Not at all."
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Despite this, Burr said that Mandel is "hard to hate," joking, "How do you hate a germaphobe? He's not threatening." The comedian also noted he has no ill will toward Corgan, saying the Smashing Pumpkins guitarist is "fine."
In November, Corgan appeared on the "Howie Mandel Does Stuff" podcast and revealed that about 10 years earlier, his stepmother told him that Burr "might be one of the children that your father sired in his days being a traveling musician." He suggested this could be possible because his dad "did once tell me that I had a half-brother named Bill, who was born around the same time as me."
But he clarified that after sitting on it, he doesn't really think they're related.
Still, when Burr appeared on "Howie Mandel Does Stuff" last week, the "America's Got Talent" judge surprised him during their interview by bringing out Corgan to sit next to him. This was the first time the two had met.
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"I thought this would be great, to bring family together," Mandel said, and the podcast episode was titled "Family Reunion."
As soon as Corgan entered, Burr seemed unhappy, asking, "Can this be edited out, or no?" He asked Corgan why he felt "the need" to bring up the idea that they could be half-brothers and told him, "Did you ever think the fact that I never told that story, that maybe you shouldn't?"
Throughout the subsequent conversation, Burr spoke as if he and Corgan legitimately share the same father, although it was somewhat unclear if he was only playing along with that idea as a bit. "At some point, it did become funny to me that he had multiple families," Burr said, adding that "my dad told us he was a dentist" and "didn't do the whole musician thing."
Burr also slammed Mandel during the episode, saying the host only cared about "ratings" and that the ambush was "rude," although he added, "I still love you, even though you did this." When Mandel continued to probe the two while playing emotional piano music, the comic asked, "Dude, you haven't gone far enough at this point?" Mandel eventually left the room entirely, leaving Burr and Corgan to talk as the piano music kept playing.
Corgan was apparently not in on the stunt. He expressed surprise that Burr did not know he was coming on the show and said that Mandel "totally set me up."