Comedian Bill Maher never met a rape joke he didn’t like. His comments about Mexicans, Asians, black people and gays would have gone over great at a whites-only Miami nightclub from 1952. He goes out of his way to add misogynistic material to his routines (“broad,” “pig,” “bitch” and “pussy” make regular appearances in his jokes about shrewish wives and crazy girlfriends). His Islamophobia is shameful (and no, he DOESN’T treat all religions with equal contempt as a card-carrying Atheist — he singles out Islam) — even to the point of him accusing a 14-year-old American boy of foul intent over a science project because the kid’s name was Mohamed instead of, say, Bill. And oh, yeah, transphobic jokes every chance he gets.
Yet for some reason there’s an entire squad of Maher’s fans who pile in to defend their hero every time someone says something inconvenient about St. George Carlin’s Only-Begotten Son and his problematic routines. Even when Maher drops the N-bomb or invites racist misogynistic pig Milo Yiannopoulis on his show.
But now maybe Maher’s done something unforgiveable in a lot of the eyes of his diehard fans, who don’t mind his misogynistic/racist/transphobic/homophobic/Islamophobic jokes:
He trashed Harry Potter.
Last night’s New Rules routine at the end of the Real Time episode began with Maher demanding rock-bottom basic reading comprehension from Presidential candidates (okay, stopped clock, twice a day) … and the routine devolved into a rambling rant about These Damn Kids These Days on Their Damn Phones Instead of Reading Good Books. (Um. Who’s gonna tell him about all the people — including teens — who are reading good books on their damn phones?)
And Good Books, in Maher’s definition, do not include the Harry Potter series, which he lumped in with Twilight as “some nonsense that’s really for juveniles” (At the 5:15 mark):
So congratulations, Bill — you may have entered your 60s only recently, but you are now a proud member of the Grumpy Old Men society. Can’t wait to hear your rants about the jitterbug, click-clacks and disco.
