Bill Maher says it’s time for Hollywood celebs to “shut up” and stop the virtue signaling.
“Hollywood [is] sort of the epicenter of the woke left. I don’t think they’re doing the Democratic party any favors,” he told The California Post. “I think if Democrats want to win elections in the future, job one, tell the celebrities to ‘Just shut the f—k up. You’re not helping. You don’t strike people in most of the country as sensible or in touch with reality.’”
This is the sort of independent thinking that has turned many in Hollywood against the “Real Time” host. Rather than toeing any particular ideological line, he tends to call things as he sees them, no matter who he offends.
Maher’s critiques of progressive excesses, and his willingness to have conversations with people of all political stripes, have irked some in the entertainment industry over the years — including, apparently, fellow comedian Wanda Sykes.
When she presented the award for best stand-up comedy performance at the Golden Globes earlier this month, Sykes took a swipe at Maher, who was nominated for his HBO special “Is Anyone Else Seeing This?“
In it, Maher calls universities “four-year daycare [centers] for the crybullies of the privileged” and says, “You wonder why the left catches more jokes from me? They changed, not me, OK?”
“Bill Maher, you give us so much,” Sykes said onstage. “But I would love a little less.”
When an absent Ricky Gervais (“Mortality”) — who has said he “supports trans rights,” but whose comedy has been criticized by GLAAD as “anti-trans” — won, Sykes gleefully accepted the award for him, saying, “Ricky Gervais says he would like to thank God. And the trans community.”
Even before the ceremony, Maher predicted on his “Club Random” podcast that he wouldn’t win: “I speak freely, and this woke town f–king hates that. And that’s okay. I’ve made my peace with that.”
He’s also not surprised by the Globes’ decision to exclude conservative-friendly, top-ranked podcaster Joe Rogan from nominations for its new podcast category.
“It was typical and predictable and also ridiculous that Joe Rogan wouldn’t be nominated in a category that he dominates,” Maher told The Post.
Maher himself is politically heterodox and, depending on the issue, sometimes sides with the left and sometimes the right.
He lives in Beverly Hills and, after the 2024 LA wildfires, said it’s “not wrong to associate some of the unforced errors our government made with the things normies see as hallmarks of uber-progressive politics, questionable budget priorities, high taxes that get you nothing, making everything about identity politics, virtue signaling overseas, instead of tending to the nuts and bolts at home.”
But he’s not relentlessly slamming Mayor Karen Bass.
“Do I think she’s done a great job? No,” he told The Post. “But all cities are messy.”
He thinks California and Los Angeles have been harmed by the fact that the Democrats monopolize power and would like to see a more balanced tipping of the political scales.
“California could stand for a lot more centrist policies,” he said. “It’s just not a good thing when one party completely controls anything. That’s certainly true of the Republicans also, who are drunk with power in Washington, overstepping their bounds and doing things that are now making them unpopular. I would love to see both sides marginalize their crazies.”
He would also like to see Gov. Gavin Newsom, who appeared on “Real Time with Bill Maher” last year, move more toward the middle.
“As far as Newsom and the state, I have many issues with both, but I like Gavin, and I always will,” Maher said. “I think he’s a really great politician, and I’m always imploring him to move to the center. I think if a Democrat like Newsom moves more to the center, it’s good for the party and it’s good for the country.”
When it comes to Newsom’s recent, Trump-like embrace of edgelord humor and bombastic AI memes — like one of himself in bizarre contorted poses, captioned “Democracy requires flexibility” — Maher is agnostic.
“At the end of the day, that kind of stuff makes no difference except, maybe politically it’s fun to watch,” he said. “Does it change anything in an election? I don’t think so. I don’t hate it, I don’t love it, I don’t care. It’s silly. It’s political theater.”
“Real Time with Bill Maher” returned to HBO for its 24th season last Friday, with guests Major General Paul Eaton, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and CNN host Kasie Hunt. Maher says this season will inevitably be guided by the moves of the White House.
“It’s a new year, but what hasn’t changed is that Donald Trump still controls the agenda,” he said. “Much as you may not want to, we all will be talking about whatever he puts on the agenda. We didn’t think it would be Greenland, but it is this week. We didn’t think it would be war in Minneapolis, but it is.”
His review of the administration’s performance, so far, is mixed.
“I really don’t like what’s going on with ICE, as most Americans don’t. I really don’t like what’s going on with the political retribution,” he said. “But, you know, Venezuela, do I hate it? No, not completely.”
In fact, he thinks the left is hypocritical for reflexively opposing Trump’s ousting of Nicolás Maduro.
“If you’re the kind of people who hate oppression, well, I mean, that’s a pretty big boot to lift off people’s heads,” Maher said. “If Cuba goes next, that would be good.”
But the comedian, who had dinner with Trump at the White House last year, said that, even when he disagrees with the president, he resists the typical Hollywood tendency to be consumed with it.
“My whole personality, unlike a lot of the people out here, isn’t just Trump,” Maher said. “I don’t hate everything. I don’t have Trump derangement syndrome. Having said that, there’s just a lot of stuff I don’t like, and I’m going to call it out.”
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