HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher says he makes fun of the left more than he used to, because “they’re dumber than they used to be,” particularly after the October 7 Hamas terrorists attacks against Israel.
“One of the issues I have with the left is that they — a lot of ignorance, I mean, people say to me all the time, ‘You make fun of the left more than you used to.’ Yeah, because they’re dumber than they used to be,” Maher told journalist Tina Brown at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
“And the right has gotten Dumber too,” Maher continued, adding, “If I had to find a reason why I thought I was right about doing this, it happened after October 7. I mean, people demonstrating for Hamas? For Hamas? It’s like rooting for the planes on 911.”
The comedian then looked out into the audience and said, “That’s a joke, for fuck’s sake, I mean, come on, lighten up white people!”
“The diversity of the crowd, by the way, I tell ya, Aspen has really done a great job with that — this fucking Klan meeting of a town,” Maher quipped.
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After being asked which party he believes is “more dangerous,” Maher replied, “definitely the Republicans,” which elicited applause from the audience.
“We don’t have to make a rally out of it,” Maher said to the audience, before reiterating his previous point about the left.
“When they say, ‘You make fun of the left,’ well, yes, because they went nuttier,” Maher said. “Five years ago nobody was demonstrating for Hamas and stuff like that.”
Maher added that just because he makes fun of the left doesn’t mean that he’s “a Republican.”
“They went nuttier, the left, and then they blame me for noticing it,” he said. “If I notice how unproductive it is to make everything about identity politics, that doesn’t make me a Republican, it makes me an honest broker.”
“If I notice all the oversensitivity, and the cancel culture, and the victim culture, and the pointless white self-loathing, and all this kind of, you know, forcing complex ideas about race and gender on kids who can’t spell yet — if I notice all this, it doesn’t make me a Republican,” Maher asserted.
The Real Time host went on to say that he would “never be a Republican” because he believes they are “too religious,” as well as “fiscal hypocrites” who are also “in denial about racism” and “think climate change is a hoax and the weather girl’s tits are real.”
“And they’re always blaming the underprivileged when they should be blaming the overprivileged,” Maher added, which elicited another applause from the audience.
The comedian then turned to the Aspen Ideas Festival audience and joked, “Big applause from the overprivileged. I love that.”
Maher added that while he thinks Republicans are “the bigger threat,” he nonetheless doesn’t “hold my tongue for anybody.”
“You can label me whatever you want. If you do something goofy, I don’t care where you are in the spectrum, I’m going to call you out,” he continued. “I speak for a different group of people. I call them the normies — normal people who just want to get back to common sense.”
“And if you do something stupid or say something stupid, I’m going to call you out,” Maher added. “I speak for Democrats, independents, and non-drooling Republicans. That’s my constituency.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
