About

Bill Maher is an American political commentator, pundit and television host well known for his aggressive atheism and tendency to say politically incorrect things.

Career

Maher made his first TV appearance in 1983 in a special titled The 8th Annual Young Comedians Show. He went on to appear in several more specials throughout the '80s, and '90s with extended runs on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Hollywood Squares. He hosted his political commentary show Politically Incorrect from 1993-2002, and Real Time with Bill Maher from 2003 to 2012. In 2008, he released his documentary Religulous, which earned a 69% on RottenTomatoes.^[9]

History

Commentary on 9/11 Terrorism

A week after the terrorist attack of 9-11, Maher spoke about the attack on his show, saying:

"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, it’s not cowardly."

"I Am Not a Witch"

Prior to her political affiliation with the Tea Party movement, Republician senate candidate Christine O'Donnell worked as a political commentator promoting conservative Christian values in a number of major news media outlets, including Bill Maher's 1990's late night talk show Politically Incorrect. During the 2010 special election to fill Vice President Joe Biden's vacated Senate seat in Delaware, O'Donnell's interviews from that time were brought back into the political spotlight by Maher on his HBO talk show Real Time, as he threatened to air one clip per episode until she appeared on his new show. On the September 17th, 2010 episode of Real Time, Maher selected a portion from an October 29th, 1999 episode of Politically Incorrect where O'Donnell admitted to dabbling in witchcraft while in high school (shown below, left). On October 4th, 2010, in effort to do damage control after backlash from that commentary, O'Donnell uploaded a simple ad (shown below, right) to her official YouTube channel, Christine4Senate, stating that she is not a witch and is a normal person, just like her constituents.

Bill Maher vs. Ben Affleck

On October 3rd, 2014, Ben Affleck appeared on Real Time With Bill Maher. ^[4] During a segment which featured a debate on whether western liberals should feel comfortable criticizing sexism and radicalism within Islam, Affleck and Maher got in a heated debate, with Meher saying liberals should criticize them, while Affleck said he was stereotyping. The same day YouTuber PumpedToWatch^[5] uploaded the clip to his channel, within a week the video gained over 4.1 million views.

The television debate sparked an online debate. On October 6th, Salon^[3] published an interview with Maher, during which the pundit categorically declined to comment on the episode. Later that same day, the controversy sparked by the video was covered by several other websites including Us Magazine^[6] and TIME.^[7]

Milo Yiannopoulos Interview

On June 17th, 2017, Maher interviewed alt-right activist and writer Milo Yiannopoulos on Real Time (shown below, left). The announcement of the interview resulted in Jeremy Scahill caneling his appearance that night.^[17] Later in the show, the panel of Real Time confronted Yiannopoulos (shown below, right).

Later, after Yiannopoulos was dismissed from his position at Breitbart over a controversial statements, Maher took credit for Milo's downfall. He said:

"Well, let’s recap. About a week ago, I went on Van Jones’s show, and somebody asked me about the booking. I hadn’t really gotten into the details of Milo yet. He was just getting on my radar. I said, specifically, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Then we had Milo on, despite the fact that many people said, “Oh, how dare you give a platform to this man.” What I think people saw was an emotionally needy Ann Coulter wannabe, trying to make a buck off of the left’s propensity for outrage. And by the end of the weekend, by dinnertime Monday, he’s dropped as a speaker at CPAC. Then he’s dropped by Breitbart, and his book deal falls through. As I say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. You’re welcome."

Racial Slur

On June 2nd, 2017, Maher uttered the word "house n****r,"^[20] a racial epithet derived from the historical term for a house slave of African descent, to refer to himself while bantering with Nebraska's Republican Senator Ben Sasse on an episode of Real Time. During the interview (shown below), Sasse invited Maher to "work on the fields" in his home state of Nebraska, to which the talk show host responded by saying "Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house n****r. No, it’s a joke."
Two days later, YouTuber James Burgos posted a video of the conversation (shown below).

On June 3rd, Senator Sasse apologized for not responding to Maher's comments in the moment, stating that he just taken a red-eye flight. He tweeted^[13] what he wished he had said and wrote, "The history of the n-word is an attack on universal human dignity. It’s therefore an attack on the American Creed. Don't use it." The post (shown below, left) received more than 1,500 retweets and 5,500 likes in one year.

Others called on HBO to fire Bill Maher. American recording artist Chance the Rapper tweeted,^[14] "Please @HBO Do Not Air Another Episode Of Real Time With Bill Maher." The post (shown below, center) received more than 15,000 retweet and 45,000 likes in one year.

Activist Deray Mckesson tweeted,^[15] "But really, @BillMaher has got to go. There are no explanations that make this acceptable." The post (shown below, right) received more than 4,300 retweets and 9,200 likes in one year.

Maher later apologized for the comment. He said in a statement:^[16]

"Friday nights are always my worst night of sleep because I’m up reflecting on the things I should or shouldn’t have said on my live show. Last night was a particularly long night as I regret the word I used in the banter of a live moment. The word was offensive and I regret saying it and am very sorry."

Roseanne Cancelation

Following the cancellation of the reboot of Roseanne in May 2018, Roseanne Barr's defenders began posting a screen-capture of comedian Bill Maher comparing United States President Donald Trump to an orangutan. Right-wing activist Jack Posobiec tweeted,^[18] "I'm so old I remember when Bill Maher claimed President Trump's 'mother had sex with an orangutan' and kept his job." The tweet (shown below) received more than 5,900 retweets and 9,000 likes in 24 hours.

On May 29th, 2018, Twitter^[19] published a Moments page about the push to fire Bill Maher.

Online Presence

As of September 2014, the Maher's Twitter account^[1] has gained over 2.7 million followers and his Facebook page^[2] has gained over 2.5 million likes.

Search Interest

External References