Bill Maher doesn’t disagree with critics who say he makes fun of Democrats more than he used to — in fact, it’s by his design.
Speaking onstage at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival with journalist Tina Brown, the comedian and author (“What This Comedian Said Will Shock You”) agreed that he makes fun of “the left” more than he has before because “they’re dumber than they used to be” — particularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.
Maher began by explaining that America is at “peak stupid” because “we stopped educating people” and there’s “a lot of ignorance.”
“People say to me all the time, ‘You make fun of the left more than you used to.’ Uh, yeah. Because they’re dumber than they used to be. And the right has gotten dumber, too,” Maher said.
The “Real Time” and “Club Random” host then explained when that turning point came.
“If I had to find a reason why I thought I was right about doing this, it happened after Oct. 7,” he said. “I mean, people demonstrating for Hamas? For Hamas? It’s like rooting for the planes on 9/11.”
Maher than looked out to the live festival audience for its muffled response to such sentiment: “That’s a joke, for f–k’s sake. Come on, lighten up white people!”
Pressed, however, on which party he thinks is “more dangerous” when it comes to the 2024 presidential election and beyond, Maher didn’t mince his words. It’s “definitely the Republicans.”
“When people say, ‘You make fun of the left more’ — yes, because they went nuttier. Obviously, so did the Republicans. But, you know, five years ago nobody was demonstrating for Hamas,” he said. “I’m going to just go where the funny is as a comedian. But that doesn’t make me a Republican. They went nuttier, the left, and then they blame me for noticing it. If I notice how unproductive it is to make everything about identity politics, that doesn’t make me a Republican, that 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. I would never be a Republican for all the reasons I never have been,” he continued. “They’re too religious, they’re fiscal hypocrites who absolutely hate it when American spends money it doesn’t have except when they’re in office and then it’s always completely OK, they’re in denial about racism (which, yes, is still a thing), they 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.”
The lead single on the “s–tty mixtape” of contemporary Republican politics, Maher added, is that “they don’t believe in democracy anymore and they threw their lot in with a sociopath named Donald Trump.”
“So they do have a comfortable lead in being the bigger threat, but I don’t hold my tongue for anybody,” he concluded. “You could 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. 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. I speak for Democrats, independents and non-drooling Republicans. That’s my constituency.”
Watch a segment from Maher’s wide-ranging Aspen Ideas Festival appearance in the video above. You can watch his full sit-down here.
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