The specials other half, however, is perhaps unexpected.
Its much more personal than Ive been in my stand-up specials for quite a long time, Maher says.
I was finally ready to talk about topics like aging, and sex, and children stuff like that.
Credit: Janet Van Ham/HBO
Naturally, he doesnt hold back.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Comics on the road have been wrestling with this era of increased sensitivity.
Since youve literally built your brand on being politically incorrect I would think youd be immune to that.
The audience that comes to a stand-up show is a paying audience of your true fans.
The audience that comes to the television show, thats a different audience.
First of all, its L.A. Second, its free.
I think thats how you handle a friend, youre honest with them.
Not because I want to join the conservative tribe, but because I want my people to be better.
I want them to clean up their raggedy s so that we can win the next election.
It behooves you to have some humility when you are a loser.
We control nothing now.
Trump is partly a backlash to people choking on political correctness.
Not even because of an election.
Thats what people have to start wrapping their minds around.
Hes leaving when he wants to leave.
Hes already got 52% of Republicans saying that they would be okay if the next election was canceled.
Thats before theyve even started a campaign.
They could easily get that number up to 80% once they get Fox News on the page.
People are way behind the curve on this.
They really need to listen to me.
I have been right about Donald Trump from the beginning.
Hes got a giant ego.
This is what he is looking to cap his life and career with.
I also said that he could win when everyone was making fun of me for that.
So, really,listen to me.
This guy is not going anywhere until he wants to go.
The worst thing that happened to us is that he started to like that job.
When he first got there, he didnt like it.
He missed his home.
He called the White House a dump.
He just missed his old life and he was moaning about that.
Well, he got used to this and now he likes playing president.
Hes above the law.
Thats another thing that people say on TV that Ive taken issue with.
I hear it every day.
The president is not above the law.
Yes, he is.
Tell him you dont have to answer a subpoena.
Rudy Giuliani, last month, said Trump couldve shot the FBI director and not been prosecuted.
Hes totally above the law and he wants to make it known.
I do, and we all face that issue.
If we give him all the oxygen in the room, thats wrong.
But if we dont cover what hes doing, thats wrong.
Its a dirty world that I sometimes have to reflect.
Vulgar is not what Im going for.
The enemy of good comedy, and of truth very often, is political correctness.
I am committed to the proposition that the nothing is funny people are not going to win.
I do talk about that.
I dont explain to the audience how a joke works, because that would destroy the joke.
Nobody is off limits and everybody has to understand that no jokes are completely fair.
If they were completely fair, they wouldnt be jokes.
[The jokes] not fair but everybody laughs and thats the way humor works.
Everybody should really just accept that and calm down.
People want someone who is mean to Donald Trump.
Its not a gentle takedown, and he deserves it.
Its about half of that, and then its kind of a departure for me.
She should enjoy her macadamia farm.
Shes had mental issues.
She told us back in the 90s she had multiple personalities.
Last year you got into some trouble over a joke you made [using the n-word].
Youve praised the #MeToo movement and also said its creating a police state for sex.
I know Chris a little.
I dont know him well.
None of us really knows what a person is like inside of a relationship.
So, I dont know.
I mean, when you read her accounting of the relationship, it certainly seems believable.
Im sure he could write one and that might sound believable to me too.
Have you ever seen it?
So, theyre showing basically the same sequence of events through the eyes of two different people.
And, of course, what you see is how differently people remember the exact same situation.
They didnt invent that, but its an interesting way to look at a relationship.
So I have no idea.
But when its one person, I have no idea.
We just dont know.
Should we believe the woman?
Yes, of course.
But also every case is an individual case.
I dont think anyone should be arguing that women, ethereal creatures though they are, are infallible.
Jordan Peterson has been on your show.
Do you have an overall take on his work?
I still cant find what hes saying thats so controversial.
I think its much more a comment on the times we live in than on Professor Peterson himself.
That people are apoplectic about some of the things hes saying, like, men and women are different.
In another generation, I just dont think people would even notice who he was.
He would be who he is a quiet academic in a small Canadian village.
I cant find it.
And in Fox News, he has his own media outlet.
I call it State TV.
Thats what it is.
They do a show for him, which he watches.
He repeats things they say, then they feed it back to him.
They have no way of knowing what the actual truth is.
Thats a very dangerous situation.
He has already effectively destroyed the concept of independent, verifiable facts.
Thats always the breeding ground from which fascism takes root.
Youve been doing your weekly HBO show for 16 years.
Ive never seen you comment on it.I dont comment on other peoples shows.
I think I might have cited atheism as one of many areas that people find off-putting.
I think whenever you are really keeping it real, really telling the truth, you alienate people.
Im like pretty much everybody else who does any sort of political comedy commentary.
I dont have that.
I dont have a team.
My team is telling the truth.
Liberals are wrong, sometimes.
Not as often as conservatives, for sure.
Ill call them on it when they are.
There was an interesting article inThe Daily Beastrecently.
I cant remember the author, but the title was something like The Democrats Need Bill Mahers Tough Love.
People who render tough love generally dont win awards.
For that, I dont care anymore.
There was a time when I did.
But after, I think its 40 nominations that we had?
Or is it really you?
Netflix doesnt release numbers though, right?
Right.You dont really know how many people are watching it.
Theyve done an amazing job in recreating the entire media landscape.
I think Ive met [Netflix chief] Ted Sarandos many times.
I think hes a great guy and my hats off to him.
But HBO has been very generous to me and Im not doing this anymore for the money.
Even still, the money is good, but thats not why I go to work every day.
Im 62 and I could retire.
You just said you could retire.
Do you ever think about retiring?
How many more years do you think youll continue to do this?No, no, no.
Im not going to do it.
If I felt like I was doing just what everybody else is doing, then I might.
Especially about whats going on with our possible president for life.
Then everybody wrote it because theyre sheep.
I was like, Wow, I am?
Maybe I will retire because thats a lot of money.
They dont know what I make.
They dont know what I spend.
They dont know what Ive saved.
We dont even know what the president is worth, let alone you.Yeah, exactly!
So you laid out some dire concerns about Trump, the state of our country, the media.
I dont think he will attempt to overturn peoples elections other than his own.
Until then, a block on his legislative abilities by electing a Democratic Congress would be helpful.
The political correctness bullst, you know?
At least hes fun.
