Suicide is man’s way of telling God, ‘You can’t fire me. I quit.’
William Maher (/mɑːr/; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher (2003–present) and the similar late-night show called Politically Incorrect (1993–2002), originally on Comedy Central and later on ABC.
Maher is known for his political satire and sociopolitical commentary. He targets many topics including religion, political correctness and the mass media. His critical views of religion were the basis for the 2008 documentary film Religulous. He is a supporter of animal rights, having served on the board of PETA since 1997 and is an advisory board member of Project Reason. Maher supports the legalization of cannabis, serving on the advisory board of NORML.
In 2005, Maher ranked at number 38 on Comedy Central’s 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time. He received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star on September 14, 2010.
Early life
Maher was born in New York City. His father, William Aloysius Maher Jr., was a network news editor and radio announcer, and his mother, Julie Maher (née Berman), was a nurse. He was raised in his Irish-American father’s Roman Catholic religion. Until his early teens he was unaware that his mother, whose family was from Hungary, was Jewish.
Owing to his disagreement with the Catholic Church’s doctrine about birth control, Maher’s father stopped taking Maher and his sister to Catholic church services when Maher was thirteen.
Maher was raised in River Vale, New Jersey, and graduated from Pascack Hills High School in Montvale in 1974. He then attended Cornell University, where he double majored in English and history, and graduated in 1978. Maher has said: “selling pot allowed me to get through college and make enough money to start off in comedy.”
Early career
Maher began his career as a comedian and actor. He was host of the New York City comedy club Catch a Rising Star in 1979. Maher began appearing on Johnny Carson’s and David Letterman’s shows in 1982. He made limited television appearances including on Sara (1985), Max Headroom (1987), Murder, She Wrote (1989, 1990), and Charlie Hoover (1991). His feature film debut was in D.C. Cab (1983). He later appeared in Ratboy (1986), House II: The Second Story (1987), Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1988), Newhart (1988), hosted the talk show Midnight Hour on CBS (1990), and Pizza Man (1991).
Television career
Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher
Maher assumed the host role on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, a late-night political talk show that ran on Comedy Central from 1993 to 1997 and on ABC from 1997 to 2002. The show regularly began with a topical monologue by Maher preceding the introduction of four guests, usually a diverse group of individuals, such as show business, popular culture, political pundits, political consultants, authors, and occasionally news figures. The group would discuss topical issues selected by Maher, who also participated in the discussions. Jerry Seinfeld, a regular guest on the show, stated that Politically Incorrect reminded him of talk shows from the 1950s and ’60s “when guests interacted with each other as much as with the host”.[21]
Politically Incorrect won an array of awards, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Technical Direction, two CableACE awards for Best Talk Show Series, and a Genesis Award for Best Television Talk Show. Maher earned numerous award nominations for his producing, writing, and hosting of Politically Incorrect, including ten Emmy nominations, two TV Guide nominations, and two Writers Guild nominations. ABC decided against renewing Maher’s contract for Politically Incorrect in 2002, after he made a controversial on-air remark six days after the September 11 attacks. He agreed with his guest, conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza, that the 9/11 terrorists did not act in a cowardly manner (in rebuttal to President Bush’s statement calling them cowards). Maher said, “We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building. Say what you want about it. Not cowardly. You’re right.” Maher later clarified that his comment was not anti-military in any way whatsoever, referencing his well-documented longstanding support for the American military. After receiving complaints, FedEx and Sears Roebuck pulled their advertisements from the show, costing the show significant revenue.
Maher’s remarks after 9/11 were not the first time he had sparked controversy on Politically Incorrect. In the same year, he expressed his deep regrets and apologized after being widely criticized for comparing his dogs to retarded children.[27] The show was canceled on June 16, 2002, and the Sinclair Broadcast Group had dropped the show from its ABC-affiliated stations months prior. On June 22, 2002, just six days after the cancellation of Politically Incorrect, Maher received the Los Angeles Press Club president’s award (for “championing free speech”). Maher was on the board of judges for the 2002 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award.
Real Time with Bill Maher
In 2003, Maher became the host, co-producer, and co-writer of Real Time with Bill Maher, a weekly hour-long political comedy talk show on the cable television network HBO. In 2016, HBO renewed Real Time through 2018, for its 15th and 16th seasons. During an interview, Maher told Terry Gross (on NPR’s Fresh Air) that he much prefers having serious and well-informed guests on his program, as opposed to the random celebrities that fleshed out his roundtable discussions on Politically Incorrect.
As with his previous show, Politically Incorrect, Maher begins Real Time with a comic opening monologue based upon current events and other topical issues. He proceeds to a one-on-one interview with a guest, either in-studio or via satellite. Following the interview, Maher sits with two or three panelists, usually consisting of pundits, authors, activists, actors, politicians, and journalists, for a discussion of the week’s events.
Real Time has earned widespread praise. It has been nominated for more than ten Primetime Emmy Awards and six Writer’s Guild awards. In 2007, Maher and his co-producers were awarded the Television Producer of the Year Award in Variety Television by the Producers Guild of America. Maher holds the record for the most Emmy nominations without a win, having been nominated on 22 occasions and not winning once. Eleven of the nominations were for Politically Incorrect, while nine were for Real Time. The other two were nominations for two of his HBO comedy specials: I’m Swiss and Bill Maher: The Decider.
Notable responses to Real Time episodes
In late May 2005, Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus sent a letter to Time Warner’s board of directors requesting Real Time be canceled after remarks Maher made after noting the military had missed its recruiting goals by 42 percent. Bachus said he felt the comments were demeaning to the military and treasonous. Maher stated his highest regard and support for the troops and asked why the congressman criticized him instead of doing something about the recruitment problem.
On September 17, 2010, Maher aired a clip of Delaware Republican Senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell from the October 29, 1999 episode of his old show Politically Incorrect on his current show Real Time with Bill Maher, where she mentioned that she had “dabbled in witchcraft”. This was one of the most notable of numerous controversial statements by O’Donnell that made her the most covered candidate in the 2010 mid-term election cycle.
In February 2017, Maher invited Milo Yiannopoulos to be interviewed on Real Time. Yiannopoulos accepted, despite protests from some commentators and fans. The appearance on Maher’s show harmed Yiannopoulos’s career due to comments in the interview in which he seemed to express sympathy toward perpetrators of child sexual abuse. In the days following the interview, Yiannopoulos had his invitation to speak before the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, as well as a book deal with Simon & Schuster, cancelled. Yiannopoulos subsequently resigned as an editor at Breitbart News. When asked whether Yiannopoulos’s interview on his show was among the causes of his resignation, Maher concurred, saying, “As I say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. You’re welcome.”
Later in June 2017, Maher came under criticism for saying “I’m a house nigger” on Real Time with calls being made by people to HBO to fire him. Following the episode, HBO sent a statement to media outlets, calling Maher’s remarks “inexcusable and tasteless” and said the cable network will remove that segment from future airings of the show. Maher also issued a statement apologizing for the remarks.
Political commentator
Maher is a frequent commentator on various cable news networks, including CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and HLN. Maher has regularly appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and has also been a frequent guest on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Rachel Maddow Show, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Maher has also appeared as a guest on HLN’s The Joy Behar Show. He wrote the foreword for the 2002 book, Spin This!: All the Ways We Don’t Tell the Truth by show host Bill Press.
Maher hosted the January 13, 2006 edition of Larry King Live, on which he was a frequent guest. Maher appeared as a special guest on the June 29, 2010 edition of the show, on which CNN anchor Larry King announced his retirement. Maher co-emceed the final show of Larry King Live on December 16, 2010 with Ryan Seacrest.
Other work
In 2004 Maher appeared on stage as Satan in The Steve Allen Theater production of “Hollywood Hell House”, a spoof of the Christian-run hell houses. The show was a faithful reproduction of an evangelistic scare-experience written by Reverend Keenan Roberts to terrify teenagers into declaring themselves Christians. “Our faith is that putting this up as itself, it will hoist itself on its own petard, that it’s comical just as it is,” explained producer Maggie Rowe. The show featured a rotating cast of over 160 celebrities, including Andy Richter (Jesus), Richard Belzer, Dave Thomas, Traci Lords, Craig Bierko, Sarah Silverman, and Julia Sweeney.
Maher and director Larry Charles teamed up to make the movie Religulous, described by trade publication Variety as a documentary “that spoofs religious extremism across the world”. It was released on October 3, 2008.
In 2013 Maher became one of the executive producers for the HBO newsmagazine series Vice. Also in 2013, Maher appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and offered to pay $5 million to a charity if Donald Trump would produce his birth certificate to prove that Trump’s mother had not mated with an orangutan. Maher said this reportedly in response to Trump having previously challenged President Barack Obama to produce his birth certificate, and having offered $5 million payable to a charity of Obama’s choice if Obama would produce his college applications, transcripts, and passport records.
In response to Maher’s offer, Trump produced his birth certificate, and then Trump launched a lawsuit after Maher was not forthcoming, claiming that Maher’s $5 million offer was legally binding. “I don’t think he was joking”, Trump said. “He said it with venom.” Trump withdrew his lawsuit against the comedian after eight weeks.
On May 13, 2016, Maher and his friend Michael Moore announced on YouTube that they are going to make a movie called “The Kings of Atheism”.
Views and beliefs
Politics
Maher eschews political labels, referring to himself as “practical”. In the past, he has described himself as a libertarian, and has also referred to himself “as a progressive, as a sane person”. He has referred to himself as a “9/11 liberal”, noting that his formerly liberal view of Islam changed as a result of the attacks on September 11, 2001, and he differentiates himself from liberals of the opinion that all religions are alike.
Maher favors ending corporate welfare and federal funding of non-profits as well as the legalization of gambling, prostitution, and cannabis. Maher is a member of the advisory boards for both the NORML and Marijuana Policy Project, organizations that support regulated legalization of cannabis, and has been called “one of the brightest torches for sensible marijuana policy” and “a contemporary cannabis statesman”.
Maher describes himself as an environmentalist, and he has spoken in favor of the Kyoto treaty on global warming on his show Real Time. He often criticizes industry figures involved in environmental pollution. He is a board member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The comedian has noted the paradox of people claiming they distrusted “elite” politicians while at the same time wanting elite doctors to treat them and elite lawyers to represent them in court. Maher supports the death penalty.
Since the 9/11 attacks, he has endorsed certain uses of profiling at airports, saying that “Places like Israel, where they have faced terrorism for a long time, of course understand that profiling is part of all detective work. It’s part of all police work. If they stop calling it profiling and start calling it high-intelligence screening or something, people would go, it’s about time.”
He opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, and has summarized his opinion by saying that the United States and the world have had to pay too high a price for the war. He is skeptical of Iraq surviving without civil war.
In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Maher announced his support for U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). Although Maher welcomed Obama’s electoral victory, he subjected him to criticism after he took office for not acting more boldly on health care reform and other progressive issues.
On February 23, 2012, after his ‘Crazy Stupid Politics’ special streamed on Yahoo! Screen, Maher announced that he was contributing $1 million to Priorities USA, the Obama SuperPAC.
On the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Maher says he is “more on the side of the Israelis” and doesn’t consider both sides equally guilty. He acknowledges that “Palestinians do have gripes”, and he has been critical of U.S. financial aid to Israel, saying “they don’t need our money, they can handle it themselves.” Maher also notes that most Israelis would prefer a two-state solution and oppose the hard-line stance of their Israeli government, which he describes as having been taken over by their version of the Tea Party. However, Maher has defended Israel’s military actions against Palestinian militants amid criticism over civilian deaths and disproportionate casualty count between Israelis and Palestinians during the 2014 Gaza war. He argues that Israel is still showing restraint, and he finds it ironic that the same people who were incredulous over how the Jews in World War II were led “to their slaughter”, can’t understand why they are defending themselves now.
Maher is a gun owner, and explained in his February 12, 2013 appearance on the late night TV talk show Conan that he owns guns for personal home protection. However, he does not identify himself as a “proud” gun owner, commenting that being a proud gun owner is akin to “saying I’m a ‘proud remote control owner'”. Maher has stated that statistics showing that gun owners are more likely to harm a member of their household are caused by irresponsible gun owners, and believes that tragedies such as school shootings will not lead to fundamental change in gun laws because both Democrats and Republicans favor guns.
On June 7, 2013, Bill Maher expressed on his show limited support for the NSA’s PRISM intelligence data collection from private phone calls and the Internet, saying that the threat of terrorists obtaining and using nuclear weapons was the tipping point for him. While he stated that he trusted the Obama administration to employ the program responsibly, he described the NSA’s access to private data as a “slippery slope”, and worried about whether other politicians would be as responsible.
In the leadup to the 2014 midterm elections, Maher conducted a “Flip a District” contest on his HBO show. His audience was asked to select one “terrible, entrenched” member of Congress in a close election race—”the loserest loser of all”—to remove from office. Maher aimed to help oust that representative by shining a “national spotlight” on the politician during segments of his show and stand-up comedy appearances in that member’s district during the Fall election.
Maher endorsed a 2014 Maine referendum to ban the use of bait, traps, and dogs to hunt bears in Maine. He specifically criticized the use of bait, referring to its use as “nothing but an execution”.
In 2015, Maher criticized Barack Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, saying: “Stop respecting their medieval bullshit under the guise of, ‘It’s their culture.’”
In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Maher initially endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders on February 5, 2016. Maher later announced his support for Hillary Clinton after Sanders had lost the Democratic Party primary elections. In October 2016, Maher criticized WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing leaks from the DNC’s emails, saying: “I really feel like he’s lost his way a little, and he hates Hillary.” On March 31, 2017, Maher said to Hillary Clinton: “Hillary, stay in the woods. Okay. You had your shot. You fucked it up. You’re Bill Buckner. We had the World Series, and you let the grounder go through your legs. Let someone else have the chance.”
Maher said economic recession would be ‘worth it’ if Donald Trump doesn’t get re-elected in 2020. He said: “We have survived many recessions. We can’t survive another Donald Trump term.”
In 2019, Maher denounced the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, saying: “It’s predicated on this notion … I think it’s very shallow thinking that the Jews in Israel are mostly white and Palestinians are mostly brown, so they must be innocent and correct and the Jews must be wrong.” He responded to Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s call to boycott his talk show: “Some people have one move only: boycott. Cancel. Make-go-away. But here’s the thing, the house voted 318 to 17 to condemn the #BDS movement, including 93% of Dems. Does Tlaib want to boycott 93% of her own party?”.
Religion
Maher is highly critical of all religion and views it as highly destructive. He has been described, or self-identified, variously as an agnostic, atheist, and apatheist, while objecting to having his views defined by a single label. In his 2008 feature film Religulous, he refers to himself as agnostic.
He has rejected being grouped with explicit atheists, saying in 2002, “I’m not an atheist. There’s a really big difference between an atheist and someone who just doesn’t believe in religion. Religion to me is a bureaucracy between man and God that I don’t need, but I’m not an atheist, no.”
Maher has also occasionally referred to himself as an apatheist, saying in 2011 “I don’t know what happens when you die, and I don’t care.” When discussing his apatheism and his views on the existence of God, he said on a scale from 1 to 7 (7 being “absolutely certain there is no god”), he was only at 6.9, like Richard Dawkins, “because we just don’t know … but we just don’t think about it.”
He added, “There’s atheist and there’s agnostic, and I’m okay with us not splitting the difference on those; if you are just not a super-religious person, you are on my team.” Several months later on a 2012 episode of his HBO show, Maher declared that “idiots must stop claiming that atheism is a religion. […] believe it or not, I don’t really enjoy talking about religion all the time. In fact, not only is atheism not a religion, it’s not even my hobby, and that’s the best thing about being an atheist. It requires so little of your time.” He has reiterated his stance during other interviews, rejecting both the certitude of the existence, as well as the certitude of nonexistence of deities, concluding, “I’m saying that doubt is the only appropriate response for human beings.”
While critical of all organized religions, saying “they’re all stupid and dangerous”, Maher says all religions are not alike, and has drawn comparisons and contrasts between them. He has said, “By any standard, Mormonism is more ridiculous than any other religion.” He has referred to tenets of Judaism as “insane” and “funny”, and has said Buddhism “includes crazy whack shit that doesn’t exist, that somebody made up, like reincarnation”. He has described Christianity and Islam as more “warlike”, and has asserted that, like historic Christianity, present-day Islam needs to undergo its own reformation and enlightenment.
In defense of his criticism of Islam, Sharia law and Muslim culture, Maher says he is “… someone who believes in the values that Western people believe in that a lot of the Muslim world does not. Like separation of church and state. Like equality of the sexes. Like respect for minorities, free elections, free speech, freedom to gather. These things are not just different from cultures that don’t have them…. It’s better … I would like to keep those values here.”
Citing studies and poll results by Pew Research Center, the World Economic Forum and others, Maher says the human rights violations and “illiberal ideas” found in Islam are not extremist views held by a small minority, but are supported by a majority of citizens in Muslim countries. Maher has criticized liberals as hypocritical for defending these core liberal values and ideals only at home, while not condemning the oppression of these values and groups in Muslim culture.
Regarding the more recent publicity generated by his stance in the ongoing debate, Maher says he thinks people are finally paying closer attention to a conversation that they need to have. “I’m just shining a light on the reality of the situation. I don’t even understand why this is so controversial.”
Maher received the 2009 Richard Dawkins Award from Atheist Alliance International. He is an advisory board member of author Sam Harris’s Project Reason, a foundation that promotes scientific knowledge and secular values within society.
Health care
Maher supports the establishment of a Medicare-for-All universal single-payer health care system, and has consistently agreed with the proposal since 2011. Maher has stated that the American Medical Association is a powerful lobbying group and one of the primary reasons why the United States had failed to enact health care reform in the decades prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
On the topic of getting the Affordable Care Act passed, in 2009 Maher stated that Obama should forget about trying to get 60 votes for it because “he only needs 51.”: “Forget getting the sixty votes or sixty percent—sixty percent of people don’t believe in evolution in this country—he just needs to drag them to it, like I said, they’re stupid; get health care done, with or without them.” On Fox News in a televised debate with Bill O’Reilly, Maher said that “if Jesus was in charge of the country we’d probably have health care for everybody.”
Maher has expressed the view that a lot of illness is the result of poor diet and lack of exercise, and that medicine is often not the most appropriate way of addressing illness. In an episode of his show about the 2008 presidential candidates’ health plans, Maher stated that poor nutrition is a primary cause of illness, and that “the answer isn’t another pill.”
He also has said: “If you believe you need to take all the pills the pharmaceutical industry says you do, then you’re already on drugs!” He has expressed his distaste for the pharmaceutical and health care industries in general, on the grounds that they make their money out of treating people who are made sick by consuming unhealthy food that corporations push on the public. He maintains that mass consumption of high-fructose corn syrup is a contributor to the rise in frequency of obesity in the United States.
In a discussion with Michael Moore about the film Sicko, Maher said, “The human body is pretty amazing; it doesn’t get sick, usually, for no reason. I mean, there’s some genetic stuff that can get to you, but, basically, people are sick in this country because they’re poisoned. The environment is a poisoning factor, but also, we gotta say, they poison themselves. They eat shit. People eat shit, and that’s, to my way of thinking, about 90 percent of why people are sick, is because they eat shit.”
Tara Parker-Pope and former Senator (R-TN) Dr. Bill Frist, a physician, have called his criticism of the H1N1 flu vaccinations unscientific. Infectious diseases expert Paul Offit has written that misinformation about vaccines from celebrities like Maher has put children at unnecessary risk. Offit says that celebrities like Maher are seen as “less credible” and would still be considered just “great entertainment” if they weren’t joined by the former Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Bernadine Healy and influential pediatrician, Dr. Robert Sears.
Oncologist David Gorski criticized Maher’s claims about vaccines several times in ScienceBlogs, and when Maher received the Richard Dawkins Award in 2009, Gorski wrote it was inappropriate. Skeptics, including mathematician and science writer Martin Gardner, neurologist Steven Novella, and magician Jamy Ian Swiss have also strongly rebuked Maher, characterizing him as anti-science, uninformed and potentially endangering the health of fans who take his “non-medical” advice.
Maher responded to the criticism, saying, “What I’ve read about what they think I’m saying is not what I’ve said. I’m not a germ theory denier. I believe vaccinations can work. Polio is a good example. Do I think in certain situations that inoculating Third World children against malaria or diphtheria, or whatever, is right? Of course. In a situation like that, the benefits outweigh costs. But to me living in Los Angeles? To get a flu shot? No.”
Miscellaneous
Maher has been a critic of 9/11 conspiracy theories. On October 19, 2007, Maher confronted several 9/11 truthers and had them ejected from his show audience after they interrupted the live show numerous times by calling out from the audience. The incident drew significant media attention and praise from Fox News talk show host and frequent critic John Gibson.
In November 2018 and January 2019, Maher stated in a blog post, in an interview with Larry King, and during a “New Rules” segment of Real Time with Bill Maher, that he questions Stan Lee’s legacy, that comic books are not literature, and that adult fans of comic books “need to grow up”.
Influences
Maher has said his influences include Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Robert Klein, and George Carlin.
Comedians who have said they were influenced by Maher are Chris Rock and Seth MacFarlane.
Personal life
Maher has never married. Regarding marriage, Maher is quoted on his website as saying, “I’m the last of my guy friends to have never gotten married, and their wives—they don’t want them playing with me. I’m like the escaped slave—I bring news of freedom.”
In 2003, he began dating former Playboy Cyber Girl Coco Johnsen. In November 2004, at the end of their 17-month relationship, Johnsen sued Maher for US$9 million for “pain and suffering” for alleged “insulting, humiliating and degrading racial comments”. Her suit stated that Maher promised to marry her and father her children, support her financially and buy a house in Beverly Hills. Johnsen’s suit also alleged that she quit her job as a flight attendant and occasional model to be with him.
Maher’s lawyers in their response, filed on November 23, 2004, in Los Angeles Superior Court said Maher is a “confirmed bachelor, and a very public one at that” who “never promised to marry [Johnsen] or to have children with her”. Maher’s filing stated that, after the relationship had ended, Johnsen “launched a campaign to embarrass, humiliate, and extort ridiculous sums of money from Bill Maher”. Johnsen had previously accused another former boyfriend of rape and kidnapping in 1997, and the charges were later dismissed for lack of evidence. The lawsuit was dismissed on May 2, 2005.
In 2005, Maher began dating Karrine Steffans, best-selling author and former hip hop model.
When commentators suggested there was a pattern to his dating because both his girlfriend and former girlfriend were black, Maher said, “People say I’m into black women. Robert De Niro is into black women. I’m just into women who are real, and they happen to be black.” From 2009-11, Maher dated former adjunct professor, science educator, and current Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe co-host Cara Santa Maria. In 2014, Maher was dating Ontario-born singer Anjulie Persaud.
In 2012, Maher purchased a minority ownership interest in the New York Mets.
Source: Wikipedia.
Bill Maher on The Perils of Political Correctness.
By David Marchese for the New York Times.
Deeply caustic and supremely confident, Bill Maher is the kind of satirist who causes even his many admirers — his HBO talk show “Real Time” draws more than four million viewers per episode — to throw up their hands now and again. Avoiding the public comfort of a party line, Maher lights into the political excesses and orthodoxies of the left as well as the right, on an anti-P.C., antihypocrisy crusade that skewers Democrats and Republicans alike. “My whole career,” Maher says, “has been this battle: Why can’t I talk on TV the way I talk at home or with my friends? My goal was to take that gap, which on most shows you can drive a truck through, and close it to nothing.”
Most late-night hosts don’t criticize both the right and the left as much as you do. Why do you think that is?
It’s hard to answer that question without sounding self-serving. I will say this: Our studio audience is not representative of liberals across the country. Your paper and The Atlantic had long articles. Both articles were written in response to a study of attitudes toward politically correct culture. According to that study, conducted by the nonpartisan organization More in Common, four out of five Americans believe “political correctness has gone too far in America.” in the last year saying that 80 percent of Americans think this politically correct BS has gone too far. But the people on Twitter are the people who control the media a lot. They’re the millennials who probably grew up with helicopter parents who afforded them a sense of entitlement. They are certainly more fragile than previous generations. Trigger warnings. Safe spaces. Crying rooms. Microaggressions. That crowd feels like anything that upsets their tender sensibilities is completely out of line.
Isn’t it important to distinguish between the fundamental arguments being made in favor of those sensibilities and the people being loudest on social media about them?
Yes. The most important thing that the Democrats can do to win the next election is to broom this element out of their party and stand up to the Twitter mob and the ultrawoke. And I don’t like the term “woke,” because it implies I am asleep. I was woke before some of these people were born. I grew up in a household with two liberal parents who were ahead of their time. My father and mother told me about civil rights. I knew what the right thing was. The difference is that liberals protect people, and P.C. people protect feelings. They don’t do anything. They’re pointing at other people who are somehow falling short of their standards, which could have changed three weeks ago. They’re constantly moving the goalposts so they can go, “Gotcha!” For example, when I was growing up, the most liberal thing you could do is not see color. Well, that’s wrong now. You see color, always, so you can register your white privilege. But I grew up in the Martin Luther King era: Judge by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. I still think that’s the best way to do it. Not see it.
But we do see color, and no one is arguing that people shouldn’t be judged by their character. So what problem is being caused by the shift you just described?
If someone walks in the room, after a minute, I should not be thinking about color. And I am not. That’s how I have always been. I have actual black friends. I don’t think they want me to be always thinking: Black person. Black person. I’m talking to a black person. Look, I tried to drive a stake through political correctness in the ’90s. I obviously failed dismally. It’s worse than ever.
You’ve talked about the negative effects of the “Twitter mob” on your show, but you’ve also talked about how most people don’t care what’s on Twitter. If people don’t care about the Twitter conversation, why bother railing against it?
Because the Twitter-mob mentality has an effect on the rest of the world. Everyone fears the wrath of the Twitter mob and the social justice warriors and the P.C. police. Religions always talk about the one true religion. Now on the left we have the one true opinion. If you go against that, you do so at your peril. That’s why the air on the left is becoming stale. I railed for years against the Fox News bubble, and that is as strong as ever, but I didn’t think it would get this bad on the left. Comedians are afraid to make jokes in clubs, because somebody will tape it and send it out on Twitter and get the mob after you.
That’s a concern we often hear from comedians these days. How much of that fear is coming from comedians still adjusting to the reality of there being possible consequences for their material? You can still make whatever joke you want. The difference is that more people are calling you out if they find it offensive.
That’s naïve. You can make the joke if you don’t mind giving up your career or being fired. Come on. The politically correct people are not concerned about social justice. They care about putting scalps on the wall. Liam Neeson. Remember that? While promoting a film early this year, Neeson said he had a racist revenge plan as a younger man after a close friend was raped by a black man. He later apologized. Are we at this place where we can’t admit that we’ve ever had bad thoughts and gotten over them and become a better person? You can’t judge today by yesterday. We evolve.
Let’s take the Liam Neeson thing.
Who I don’t even like, by the way.
What’s your problem with Liam Neeson?
He’s for horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. And I’m a PETA board member.
I didn’t know that. But the controversy around him was a story for a day, and then the world moved on. His career is fine, isn’t it?
The world doesn’t move on for Megyn Kelly. Kelly made on-air comments lamenting how the culture’s attitudes toward the use of blackface in Halloween costumes had changed, for which she later apologized. She was let go as host of NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today” shortly after the incident. and Roseanne,Roseanne Barr was let go from her self-titled ABC sitcom last year after posting a racist tweet about the former President Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett. The comedian apologized for the tweet. and Aziz Ansari. In January 2018, Babe.net published the account of an anonymous woman who accused Ansari of inappropriate behavior during a date. Though he privately apologized to the woman, in his public statement he called their interaction “completely consensual.” had to fly below the radar for a year. I think you’re downplaying how serious this stuff is. We live in an age where people want to cancel other people and disappear them. Who’s going to be left?
You’ve had two big controversies during your career. The first was in 2001 when you said that the 9/11 hijackers were not cowards. The second was two years ago, when you made that joke using the N-word. (In response to a joke made by “Real Time” guest Sen. Ben Sasse inviting Maher to come “work in the fields,” Maher replied, “Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house nigger. No, it’s a joke.” Maher expressed his regret in a statement issued the day after the episode aired.) Did it feel different to be at the center of a controversy during the social media era?
Controversies are never pleasant to go through. On the second controversy, I’m saving an in-depth discussion for my memoirs. If we were living in a country that could handle nuance, I’d be happy to talk about it, but we’re no longer in that country. There’s no winning there. You’re going to have to read my memoirs. We live in an era where I don’t think people’s main focus is the truth and/or sussing out something valuable or teachable. We live in a time in which people are more concerned with scalps and clicks.
Did the discussion that happened after you made that joke reveal anything new to you about our culture’s or your own understanding of that language?
I just think there’s no way to have that conversation with you, David. I’m sorry, I don’t blame you for trying. It’s a shame, because there is lots of learning that can be happening. As I said at the time, anytime someone is hurt by a word like that you have my sincere apology. But that’s the beginning of a discussion, and it’s too bad that we don’t live in a place where you can have the end of it.
Well, so my next question is related to the 9/11 controversy. You’ve always been critical of all religions, but is there something distinct about your criticism of Islam? Fairly or not, you’ve been called an Islamophobe a few times over the years.
It’s ridiculous to label criticism of a religion as a phobia of a religion. I’m going to criticize any person or group that violates liberal principles, and so should you. Almost all religions, by their nature, are intolerant and supremacist. At any time in history one religion will be the most fundamentalist. At this moment I think it’s pretty evident that religion is Islam. Of course, intolerance exists everywhere, but the places where, let’s say, human rights workers have their work cut out for them the most are probably traditional Islamic societies. To conflate thinking that with Islamophobia is a facile and unconvincing trick.
I do wonder if, at least in the past, you’ve done some conflating of your own as far as, for example, treating theocracies or dictators as exemplars of Islamic rank and file.
I think you have it backwards. The government of Pakistan is more liberal than the people. Their senate recently passed legislation to end child marriages and local police forces have intervened. Yes, we have things in our country that are at odds with liberal values, but someone once said that, at some point, a difference in degree becomes a difference in kind. It’s frustrating for me. I know that people who ask me these questions actually agree with me, and yet they’re like, “Are you crazy?” It’s like, Can I just be real?
It could be that there are complexities that your criticisms of Islam don’t address.
There are many factors, none of which I’ve ever denied. Poverty has been shown to have little to do with terrorism. You can always bring in a million things to make this look like a phobia. “But what about white supremacy?” Also a bad thing! Never said it wasn’t. It’s interesting to me that even the people who criticize me about this sometimes have used the word cancer. As in, “Islamism is a cancer upon Islam.” And to those who say, when I mention instances of Islamism, “But it’s not everywhere,” I say, “If a doctor tells you you have cancer, do you go, Yeah, but it’s not everywhere?”
Do you see any way out of this cultural and political tailspin we’re in right now, in which everyone’s default stance is “If you don’t agree with me, then screw you?”
You have to find a way to begin with what you share and then explore why you differ so vehemently on other issues, and that’s what we seem to have lost the ability to do. I don’t see a lot of desire for people to talk to each other, to accept that, “O.K., this person doesn’t agree with me on a lot of stuff, but I don’t have to think he’s a monster.” We want to beat our chests and vanquish the other side. Compromise seems like a dead concept.
On the “Real Time” anniversary special last year, the things people were saying about why they like you — especially your fearlessness about saying what you really think — reminded me of the things people say about why they like President Trump, whom you’re no fan of. (To say the least. Maher’s nickname for the president is “whiny little bitch.” ). Is there any way to productively channel people’s enthusiasm for those qualities? So much of it seems like it’s mostly about the pleasure we get from seeing our opponents insulted.
During the second year of “Politically Incorrect” we had a contest: “Politically incorrect or just stupid?” We were trying to make the point that saying something that’s contrary is not necessarily politically incorrect. It’s sometimes just stupid. I define political correctness as the elevation of sensitivity over truth. That’s my beef with it. We’re not getting to the truth, because we’re too sensitive.
Let me totally switch subjects. I went and read your novel. (Published in 1994, Maher’s “True Story: A Novel” is a roman à clef about a group of five aspiring comedian friends in New York City.)
I’m verklempt. That’s something no interviewer has ever said to me.
It has this lovingly detailed evocation of a very particular time in the comedy world, back when the boom was starting to happen in the late ’70s, and how that was a real moment of change for comedians and their work. Have you seen any similar sea changes since?
I’m probably not the best one to ask, because it has been a long time since I was in the comedy clubs. I do hear a lot of complaints that comedians are frustrated that they can’t freely try out new bits. When I was coming up, the great thing about the comedy clubs was that they were laboratories for our experimentation. That was the deal. They didn’t pay us, and we didn’t have to be good — and weren’t — but that’s how we honed our craft. Now people are afraid, and comedy does not function well in that atmosphere of fear. We want to be saying whatever, especially if it’s funny, and it hurts us that the audience won’t trust us. Do you really think I’m on the side of the bad people? Chris Rock, Larry the Cable Guy and Jerry Seinfeld a few years ago all were talking about the fact that they don’t work campuses anymore. Jerry Seinfeld is too out there? His act is so clean it whitens teeth. Comedy is about saying those true things that everyone else isn’t saying. That’s where the fun is.
You mentioned colleges. Students are another group that you talk a lot about on the show. There has been no time over the last 50 or so years when people haven’t been criticizing college kids’ social and political ideas. But isn’t that a reaction to the fact that college is a place where students are pushing hard and figuring out their ideas about the world? Isn’t that what these kids are supposed to be doing at that age and in that setting?
I don’t think someone who’s at Harvard is a child, and I do think they should know that everybody in America gets a lawyer. Yet they did not understand that. The Harvard law professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. drew criticism from students for joining Harvey Weinstein’s defense team ahead of Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault trial. Sullivan was later relieved of his position as a dean of an undergraduate residential house.
The students at Harvard weren’t saying Harvey Weinstein wasn’t entitled to a lawyer. They were objecting to a residential dean being his lawyer. That’s different.
Well, that’s wrong, too. Everybody gets the lawyer that they want. Harvard doesn’t understand the very basis of the Sixth Amendment? I don’t think a lot of us who are criticizing that are criticizing the kids as much as the administrators.
Who you think are spineless.
Very spineless. The way parents have been spineless in disciplining their kids. When I was growing up you could never drive a wedge between your parents and the teacher. Now the parents always back their precious darlings, and that’s why you have grade inflation and kids who leave school without knowing anything. “It’s not the kid’s fault that he doesn’t know anything. It’s the teacher’s fault.” That’s not helping our country. Being brought up this way is going to lead these kids to ruin. Of course, they’re not all brought up the same way. I don’t think in the middle of the country they’re raising their kids like that. I saw Mario Lopez got in trouble, did you see that?
I didn’t.
I saw this headline: “Mario Lopez Apologizes.” It was this groveling apology to the L.G.B.T.Q. community. You know what the problem was? They asked him about this trend in Hollywood of letting your 3-year-old decide their gender and Mario Lopez said maybe 3 is a little young for that decisions. Here was the television personality’s apology: “The comments I made were ignorant and insensitive, and I now have a deeper understanding of how hurtful they were. I have been and always will be an ardent supporter of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and I am going to use this opportunity to better educate myself. Moving forward I will be more informed and thoughtful.” Monster!
This is making me think of when you had Dr. Debra Soh on. A former sex researcher and current writer for the intellectual dark-web bastion Quillette, as well as other publications, Soh has drawn attention for her cautioning against parents allowing their children to transition at an early age. on the show talking about gender dysphoria, and you were pointing to what you see as the problem of parental permissiveness towards gender identification and transitioning. You were saying that parents let their kids gender reidentify because it’s easier than telling them not to. That seemed pretty glib.
It was.
It’s a bit hard to imagine that parents who support a child’s transitioning are doing it because they think it’s the easier path.
That’s not true. I know people who’ve done it, and that is exactly what it is. They never discipline their kids. They think they’re making it easier by giving the kid what they want. I mean, you’re right, what I said was glib, but I am serving many masters. “Real Time” is an entertainment show on an entertainment network, and I’m a comedian. Not everything I say can stand up to the scrutiny of the ultimate fact-check. But I think that there is some truth to this. There are kids — and this is what Dr. Soh was saying and I wasn’t disagreeing with — who have transitioned who were really just gay. I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world to wait a few years to find out what’s going on. I’m not a doctor. I’m not a scientist. But if I had a kid I would tell them: “As long as you’re living under my roof you’re not cutting anything off. Until you’re 18. Then you cut off whatever you want.” Here I am, being glib again.
What’s something encouraging to you about millennials? And what’s the most disappointing thing about your own generation?
Aside from ruining the world environmentally. We’ve left a dark, stinking husk of a planet, haven’t we? My generation started this mess. The Baby Boomers were the first “Me” generation. They were the first spoiled kids. There definitely was more discipline, but there was also more indulgence, and that seemed to continue on and on. So I think we have to look in the mirror as to when that trend started. As for the most encouraging thing about millennials, it’s idealism. You need people to look at anything with a fresh pair of eyes. That sort of idealism is essential to temper the necessary cynicism.
And you don’t see any idealism in the identity politics of younger people?
I don’t know how that’s connected to idealism. What I’m complaining about is fragility. What I’m complaining about is people who were overindulged as children and somehow believe that they should not have to endure even the slightest measure of discomfort.
I’m sure I’m overly Pollyanna-ish about all this, and obviously not everyone is arguing these issues in good faith, but isn’t the root of what you’re identifying just people’s attempt to figure out how to get through life with more dignity and less pain?
But there are negative repercussions. People get disappeared. When I was a young person the conservatives were the ones who — I don’t know what you’d call it.
Drew hard lines about what was or wasn’t culturally acceptable?
Thank you, yes. Now it’s reversed, and I feel like that’s backwards. Young people should be the free ones pushing the boundaries and not the ones inhibiting us. “Well, I’m not a woman, so I could not possibly know that experience.” “I’m not a person of color, so I can’t speak about that.” Professors are afraid to speak, because what they say, even if it’s science, might go against the politically correct notion. This is pernicious. I’m sorry, but I have to lay that at the doorstep of the far left and the younger generation. It’s not the worst thing in the world to hear something you find somewhat offensive. You can turn the channel. Look at something else. Go to a puppet show; you’ll never be offended.
I’m curious about how your own comedy has evolved. Back when you were doing “Politically Incorrect” you used to do a lot more hubba hubba jokes about women.
It’s funny you mention that. When I turned 50, I had a talk with my writers and I said, “no more I’m-in-the-hot-tub-with-twins jokes.” Back in the ’90s it was a different point of view to say, “I’m single, and that is not a bad choice.” I stood up for that idea — and it was not well accepted at the time — that you can have children, that’s fine, but I do not want them. I was a bit of a militant single person. But when I was 50, I said, “I’m too old to be doing these jokes.” At a certain point it’s not funny anymore. It’s creepy. I never did those kind of jokes again.
Do you still have a stripper pole in your house?
It’s not in my house.
Guest house?
Well, yes. I bought my house in 2001, and in 2004 my next-door neighbor was selling his bachelor pad. He had a small house he lived in, and there was this other little bungalow on the property that I use if I have a party. I don’t know how you knew that I had a stripper pole put in.
Let me ask you a nonpolitics, noncomedy question. I know that you’re a big Beatles fan. In one of your books you said you could probably do a better job interviewing them than anybody has yet.
I definitely could.
So if you could snap your fingers and have Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on your show, what would you ask them?
I would love to present my theory as to why the Beatles really broke up. Which is that John Lennon could not keep up in the battle for A-sides. Imagine writing a song as great as “Revolution” and it loses out to “Hey Jude.” That’s, I think, why John Lennon didn’t want to continue going with the Beatles. I don’t think he liked losing. Paul McCartney would never admit that, by the way.
Well, there you go. O.K., back to your work! For more than 25 years you’ve been going on TV and making jokes about Republicans being hypocritical and corrupt and Democrats being too PC and lacking backbone. Does it ever feel like you’re banging your head against a wall? These people don’t change.
Yes but I never thought that people would hear my jokes and go: “He’s right! I’ve got to amend my behavior right now.” But I’m very fortunate as a standup comedian who still goes on the road a lot, because I’m always given new material. I had John Boehner jokes, and now I have Mitch McConnell jokes.
I wonder if you could get away with Mad-Libbing your material. Just swap new names into old jokes.
I have repurposed junk. I think I had one about Newt Gingrich having the moral compass of an opportunistic infection. Who doesn’t that apply to? I have a plethora of material, but if an old joke perfectly fits somewhere I’m not above repurposing. You know, John Lennon wrote a song called “Child of Nature,” and it was a great tune. He repurposed it with different lyrics a few years later as “Jealous Guy.”
Artists are blue jays. We find little scraps here and there and build a nest. We’re shameless about it.
Filmography
| Film | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role |
| 1983 | D.C. Cab | Baba |
| 1986 | Club Med | Rick |
| Ratboy | Party Guest | |
| 1987 | House II: The Second Story | John |
| 1988 | Out of Time | Maxwell Taylor |
| 1989 | Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death | Jim |
| 1991 | Pizza Man | Elmo Bunn |
| 1996 | Don’t Quit Your Day Job! | Comic’s Table |
| 1997 | Bimbo Movie Bash | Unknown |
| 1998 | Primary Colors | Himself |
| 1999 | EDtv | Himself |
| 2001 | The Party’s Over | Himself |
| Tomcats | Carlos | |
| 2002 | John Q | Himself |
| 2003 | Pauly Shore Is Dead | Himself |
| 2005 | The Aristocrats | Himself |
| Fuck | Himself | |
| Inside Deep Throat | Himself | |
| 2007 | Heckler | Himself |
| 2008 | Swing Vote | Himself |
| Religulous | Himself | |
| 2009 | New Rules: Best of | Himself |
| 2010 | Sex, Drugs & Religion | Himself (stock footage) |
| 2012 | The Campaign | Himself |
| 2013 | Iron Man 3 | Himself |
| 2014 | A Million Ways to Die in the West | Comic |
| The Interview | Himself | |
| 2015 | Ted 2 | Himself |
| 2018 | Gringo | Himself |
| 2019 | Late Night[140] | Himself |
| HBO Specials | ||
| Year | Title | Role |
| 1995 | Stuff that Struck Me Funny[141] | Himself |
| 1997 | The Golden Goose Special | Himself |
| 2000 | Be More Cynical | Himself |
| 2003 | Victory Begins at Home | Himself |
| 2005 | I’m Swiss | Himself |
| 2007 | The Decider | Himself |
| 2010 | But I’m Not Wrong | Himself |
| 2014 | Live From D.C. | Himself |
| 2018 | Live from Oklahoma | Himself |
| Other Specials | ||
| 2012 | Crazy Stupid Politics (Yahoo!) | Himself |
| 2016 | #WhinyLittleBitch (Facebook Live)[142] | Himself |
| Television | ||
| Year | Title | Role |
| 1985 | Alice | Officer Gary Conroy |
| Sara | Marty Lang | |
| 1987 | Rags to Riches | Freddie |
| Hard Knocks | Gower | |
| Max Headroom | Haskel | |
| 1988 | Newhart | Norm Murphy |
| 1989–90 | Murder, She Wrote | Rick Rivers/Frank Albertson |
| 1989 | One Night Stand | Himself |
| 1990 | The Midnight Hour | Host |
| 1991 | Charlie Hoover | Elliot |
| 1992 | Say What? | Host |
| One Night Stand | Himself | |
| 1993 | Married… with Children | Adam Gold |
| The Jackie Thomas Show | Mr. Lorre | |
| Roseanne | Photographer | |
| 1993–2002 | Politically Incorrect | Host |
| 1996 | Weinerville | Himself |
| 1997 | The Larry Sanders Show | Himself |
| Dharma & Greg | Himself | |
| 1998 | V.I.P. | Himself |
| 1999 | Spin City | Himself |
| Brother’s Keeper | Himself | |
| Snoops | Himself | |
| 2000 | The Chris Rock Show | Himself |
| 2001 | Primetime Glick | Himself |
| 2002 | Son of the Beach | Himself |
| 2003–present | Real Time with Bill Maher | Host |
| 2004 | MADtv | Himself |
| 2008 | True Blood | Himself |
| 2010 | The Sarah Silverman Program | Himself |
| The Boondocks | Himself | |
| 2010, 2013 | Family Guy | Himself |
| 2012 | The Good Wife | Himself |
| 2013 | House of Cards | Himself |
| 2015 | Blackish | Himself |
