Famed “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson once said he didn’t want to reveal his political views because he didn’t want to alienate viewers. And he famously took aim at both parties in his nightly monologue, realizing that politics is simply funny.
Very few comedians these days do that. Think of all the late-night hosts, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Myers, Stephen Colbert. And some stand-up comedians, like Patton Oswalt, are vicious to anyone who doesn’t think exactly like them.
But Bill Maher is different. Maher, whose comedy career was flagging when he morphed into a political talk show host back in the mid-1990s, has become a rare specimen — a comedian who targets both sides.
The 66-year-old funnyman, who hosted “Politically Incorrect” from 1992 to 2002 and has headlined “Real Time” on HBO since 2003, has described himself as a liberal and a libertarian.
But he also calls himself “practical.” That means he can see the humor that pours from turkeyneck Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) just as well as the buffoonery of 147-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
So it was not unusual — although it drew headlines across the country — when Maher said President Joe Biden needs to get rid of Vice President Kamala Harris if he decides to run again in 2024.
“It’s very hard to take the nomination away from the president,” Maher said. “What I could see is replacing the vice president because she’s not very popular anywhere. And it didn’t seem to work out. And I don’t know. That’s been done before in a ticket.”
A guest on his HBO show, left-wing The Atlantic writer Caitlin Flanagan, agreed, saying Harris was not only an “off-putting person,” but that she also has “a lot of baggage that probably wouldn’t do well under a lot of scrutiny.”
But Maher went further. “I just think she’s a bad politician. And I don’t … I think she’s a very bright person. But I can see them doing that because a lot of the problem with Biden being old is, ‘Oh, if he dies then you know you’re gonna get this person.’”
“OK, so here’s the problem with the Democratic Party. They’re so boxed in by identity politics that you cannot conceive of a Democratic ticket that doesn’t have a woman and person of color on it. And pretty soon you’re gonna line up behind that gay Latino and you’re gonna have to have, you know, a deaf Eskimo be the [nominee].”
It didn’t take long for Harris to prove Maher right. The day after his weekly show, the vice president said federal relief for the victims of Hurricane Ian would be based on “equity” and prioritize people in “communities of color.”
“It is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not of their own making,” Harris said.
Maher regularly targets young liberals for their “progressophobia,” which he said in 2021 has resulted in “a growing belief in whiteness as a malady and white people as irredeemable.”
“There is a recurrent theme on the far left that things have never been worse,” Maher said. “[Comedian] Kevin Hart expressed a view many hold when he told The New York Times, ‘You’re witnessing white power and white privilege at an all-time high.’”
“This is one of the big problems with wokeness — that what you say doesn’t have to make sense or jibe with the facts or ever be challenged, lest the challenge itself be conflated with racism. But saying white power and privilege is at an all-time high is just ridiculous,” he said.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.