No one across the political spectrum is safe. From the acid wit of Bill Maher, the comedian and host of Real Time on HBO. On recent episodes of his show, he has brought his sharp analysis to big issues in the news, such as the presidential election and college campus protests. I wanted to talk to him about all that and more. He has a new book called What This Comedian Said Will Shock You. And I should note that HBO and CNN share the same parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery. Bill Law, a pleasure to have you on. Always great to see you. So in the middle of your book, you write, some people think I've changed. I assure you I have not. I'm still the same unmarried, childless, pot smoking libertine I always was. I have many flaws. But you can't accuse me of maturing. That sounds like a really funny, good book. So I want to put to you because I know you like listening to disagreements. People who say to me, and there are many who say, I love Bill Maher, but he he has matured too much. He's become cranky, he's become crotchety. He's become one of those old guys who says, kids are crazy. It was better in my day. What do you say to them? They're wrong. I mean, they're wrong and the kids are crazy. It's interesting. They have this idea, the younger generation, maybe every generation does that just because something is new makes it better. And that's not true. New is not synonymous with better. But you're sounding like an old fashioned but conservative. Okay. I heard a couple of people say or maybe they wrote it online that, well, I'm a hypocrite because you were for the demonstrators in 1968 or whatever it was when they were demonstrating against the Vietnam War. Yeah, that was very different. First of all, the students weren't against their own. These students were threatening other students. That didn't happen in the Vietnam War. And being against the Vietnam War was made sense. It was a war that we probably should not have been in. But but listen, this is demonstrating and protesting for a terrorist group. I mean, Hamas is well, to be fair, a lot of students are doing that. There are a lot of outside you know, people have mixed together what students are doing, what outside protesters are doing. But let me ask you a broader question, which is a lot of people will say, look, this is how you get change. You know, it's noisy. Some people do say the wrong thing. Some people go too far. But the whole tradition of this kind of expansion of rights, it's messy. It's chaotic. You know? Yeah, we're we're this probably a bunch of excess, as there were probably was in the sixties. There was the Black Panthers and the Weathermen and things like that. But they they think of you as somebody who was you know, you were okay with all that. But you've you've turned. I have in turn. Yes. People have said to me, you make fun of the left more than you used to and guilty I have, because the left has changed now. The right has changed also. And even worse. I mean, the right doesn't believe in democracy anymore. I mean, they've thrown their lot in with this sociopath named Donald Trump who only thinks elections count when we win. Okay, well, that's worse. But it's not like the left hasn't changed also. So I'm going to call it out wherever I see it. I mean, there are things that have to do with, you know, gender and race and free speech and just ideas about, you know, you can be healthy at any weight. And gender is always a social construct. And maybe we should give communism another try and maybe we should get rid of capitalism and the Border Patrol and let's tear down statues of Lincoln and get rid of the police. But just, you know, no, it's not that I've gotten old. It's that your ideas are stupid. Okay. Concepts is still common sense, yet common sense is common sense. And I'm going to call it out wherever it is on the spectrum. Let me ask you about a related thing that you've that you've written about and talked about, which I find very interesting. You think that that men in particular have lost their young men have lost the ability to communicate to date, to know how to cope women? Yes. I think this is going to be a very big problem. I think young men thought it was a great thing when Tinder came along. Oh, my gosh. Look, I don't even have to talk to a girl. It's all right here on my phone. I can just scroll through like it's a menu, like I'm ordering from GrubHub. But the truth is that Tinder is mostly men. You know, it's like two thirds of men who are on the site. So that's not good odds if you're a man. And then most women on it say they will swipe left on anyone who's not six feet tall, which would leave us out. So what is the upshot of this going to be? My guess would be a lot of horny, frustrated, angry Trump voters is, I'm guessing, where these guys are going to go. You know, they already have this group called Incels. Have you heard of that? Incel stands for Involuntarily celibate, and they're very angry and very vocal. And I don't blame them. I remember when I was an incel, but you know, we didn't have a word for it. Women have not changed that much. I know if you look in the media, it looks like we're all fluid and gay and trans and on the spectrum and non-binary, but I don't know, you know, The Bachelor is still on. I just don't think women have changed that much and they're communicative creatures. You have to talk to them. And I think men are losing that ability. I think they, you know, they just think they can send a text of an eggplant emoji and write what's up and they're going to be home free. No, you have to court. Yes, you have to do some courting. Women have not changed in that regard. lot about how the left has gone crazy. But to be fair to you, you've always also pointed out the right has gone even crazier, embracing Trump. I want to ask you why you think it happened. Because, you know, this was the party of Ronald Reagan, free markets, free trade, loved immigration, very optimistic. What do you think made it? You know, it's now dour, pessimistic. America is doomed. It's American carnage. Well, I think the basis of it is we started to hate each other. I mean, you mentioned Ronald Reagan famously. He used to have a drink at the end of the day, often with Tip O'Neill, who was the leader in the House and the Democrat, but they were just two Irish pals who could get together and have a Scotch at the end of the day. And they knew they weren't going to get along on many issues, but they didn't hate each other. They could drink together. That is inconceivable today. Can you imagine Joe Biden having a drink with Mike Johnson? It just would never happen. When you hate people, you don't listen to them. So it doesn't matter how reasonable they might be. We have reached this place where each side thinks the other side is an existential threat. You hear that term from both sides all the time. That is just a terrible place to be because we find ourselves in this situation where both sides are literally siding with enemies of America rather than the opposition party within the country. I mean, you see Republican MAGA people with t shirts that say, I'd rather be with Russia than Democrats. I mean, I mean, Trump stood with Putin against our intelligence agencies. Fox News literally uses Russian talking points. I mean, Tucker Carlson went over there and did the whole dog and pony show backing up Putin, basically. And on the left, you see them marching for Hamas, a terrorist organization. This is a terrible place to be and it can happen here. The last chapter in the book is called Civil War. And it's you know, you hear more about it all the time. People who are actually pining for it. Civil War. Come on, let's do this thing. Let's get this going. Let's have this national divorce. It can't work. It won't work. Half the country is not going to self-deport. Even if you win every election. So what? What? What should I mean? Somebody like Obama came in trying to be the unifier. Remember, he famously would invite the then speaker, John Boehner, to two White House screenings. Boehner went to a couple, got got so much shit for it, never went back. Biden has tried to to reach out. What's the strategy that might work? Apparently not that. I mean, I think we're past that. I don't know. I don't know what it is. I mean, I think this goes back to the Supreme Court fights that we had, like in the was it late eighties or early nineties? This goes back a long way. So it's going to take a long way to get back to some sort of normalcy. I don't know. Sometimes you have to hit bottom before you can go back to the top. I don't know what that means in this country, but I know one thing. Donald Trump is not going to concede the election. So what happens in January 2025, on the 20th when Inauguration Day rolls around and he didn't win the election? He's not just going to go away. And if he wins and he's the president and January 20th, 2025, he's never going to give that up because he doesn't understand the Constitution, doesn't care about it. I don't think he's ever read it. He just knows power and winning and our side is right. Where do you get more hate mail from the left or right? I don't know, because I don't read it. I that don't. I don't care. There's more. Pleasure to have you. Thank you. Always.
