1. Mediaite
  2. Gossip Cop
  3. Geekosystem
  4. Styleite
  5. SportsGrid
  6. The Mary Sue
  7. The Jane Dough

Bill Maher Explains He Never Joked About ‘Hot’ ‘Religious Nut’ Elisabeth Hasselbeck Being Raped

Video
» 56 comments

HBO’s Bill Maher paid a little visit to E!’s Chelsea Lately, where he revisited a certain pesky little story that has been following him around for nearly a year now. Maher told host Chelsea Handler that his February 2011 joke involving The View‘s Elisabeth Hasselbeck and CBS’ Lara Logan had not been in reference to the sexual violence Logan endured while covering the uprising in Egypt. Maher, for those who don’t remember, joked that the U.S. should trade Hasselbeck for Logan, who had been captured the day before.

RELATED: Elizabeth Hasselbeck Confronts Bill Maher Over Joke In Uncomfortable View Segment

“I mean, look, I like Elisabeth Hasselbeck,” said Maher, much to this one blogger’s surprise, “I think she’s a, you know… I think she got her facts wrong. And… [audience laughter] She did. Accused me of something I never did.”

Maher then explained to Handler that Hasselbeck had conflated two different things: “We made a joke about her and Lara Logan, but it was well before we found out that Lara Logan was captured and abused. So she tried to make it sound like I did it after, which I wouldn’t have done.”

NewsBusters, in fact, points to a Wall Street Journal blog post recounting that Maher made his joke on February 4, 2011, and that Logan’s attack occurred on February 11.

“Why didn’t you just say that when you there [on The View]?” asked Handler. “You should’ve just hit her, right in the face.”

Maher then opined that “religion, first of all, makes people crazy” (or, really, Religion Makes People Crazy™), adding that Hasselbeck is a “religious nut.”

“For some people,” he went on, “religion is like great sex. Just can’t think straight when they’re on it.”

He added that, when Hasselbeck “goes off like that, it’s kind of hot.” So she’s like a MACKadamia, then? High fives all around, everyone! Perfect joke. Best joke. Your new favorite joke.

Check it out, via E!

h/t NewsBusters

Follow us on Twitter.

Sign up for Mediaite's daily newsletter.

Email Twitter Facebook Digg Reddit Stumble Upon Yahoo Buzz LinkedIn Tumblr Delicious
  • Anonymous

    Once again, a wingnut lies to play the victim.

  • Anonymous

    Elizabeth is a proven liar!

  • Anonymous

    Well we know Maher is…….

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N77MYF3Rqdk

  • Anonymous

    Maher never answered Handler’s question….

    “Why didn’t you just say that when you there? “You should’ve just hit her, right in the face.”

    ps… I love the hit in the face part…

    Answer… Maher isn’t all that smart. If you claim he is… prove it. Give an IQ test to show it. It’s my opinion that he isn’t smart just like it is HIS opinion that he is. Until there is an IQ test to prove it, my opinion is just as much fact as anyone claiming he is smart :).

  • Anonymous

    He wasnt lying and clearly was refering to Brazils efforts to have a sustaiable biofuels economy.  Try again.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, the hilarious Bill Mahar. Anyone watch him when the writers went on strike a few years ago and he wrote his own ‘jokes”?Absolutely brutal- save for a few sympathy chuckles it was dead silence.
    And he couldn’t  ad lib a fart in a Hungarian restaurant.

  • http://twitter.com/DolefulLions Doleful Lions

    Typical of Hasslebeck to lie about Bill Maher. Maher is big enough not to be too hard on her. She needs help.

  • Anonymous

    I find Maher as bad as any over the top “religious nut”. He never stops whining about it. One pathetic guy.

  • South Park Conservatives

    Stay classy libs.

  • Anonymous

    This should be a real comfort to DonkeyFace Maher’s (4) fans. Now they won’t have to abandon him for that other creepy cretin, “Louis CK.”

  • Ben

    Actually Bill is right there, he did that joke the week before Logan was attacked in Tahrir Square.
    At the time Logan had been arrested by Egyptian Police,interrogated for 24 hours and then thrown out of the country.She came back and was attacked in the Square a week later .

    When Bill went on the View,Hasselbeck tried to spin it like he joked about the rape, to make him look like the worst person ever,which is pretty damn low.But Bill didn’t bring it up,which he should have.Dunno why.

  • http://twitter.com/Samuel_Bun Samuel_Bun

    Watch your debates and tell us about classy.

  • http://twitter.com/Samuel_Bun Samuel_Bun

    Stoneyjack here is a joke for you.

    Poo

  • Anonymous

    Perhaps you didnt read the entire post?  He did nothing wrong.  Hasselbeck actually tried to make him look as if he joked about her being traded for Lara Logan and then attacked.  But this was all before Logan was attacked. 

  • Anonymous

    He’s pretty damn funny, though. 

  • Anonymous

    Real time tonite! YAY :)

  • Anonymous

    He was completely lying and got called on it. I almost felt sorry for him and his hair plugs. Almost. 

  • Anonymous

    He doesn’t “joke” anyway…his writers do. He’s a delivery boy.

  • Anonymous

    I’m a big fan of both Maher and Handler, it’s interesting to watch them go back and forth trying to one-up each other, makes a pretty funny interview. Both are really smart and abrasive, and most importantly, they don’t give a ****. 

  • Anonymous

    Big enough? Right, the man that said that having a mentally disabled child is like having a dog is a ‘big’ man, integrity wise. Right. Gotcha. Check. 

    Oh, and there is nothing ‘big’ about dwarf Maher except his freakishly disproportionate to his tiny body sized hair-plugged head.

  • Anonymous

    I suspect he didn’t bring it up because the joke was about hoping some harm came to Hasselbeck, obviously. Which, is indefensible.

  • Anonymous

    It is not a lie – he was simply mistaken. 
    Verbatim:
    “I believe they did,” Maher said. “I believe in the 70′s they had a program to use sugarcane ethanol, and I believe that is what fuels their country.”  

    Politifact:
    “Getting back to our factcheck, Maher was likely remembering Brazil’s aggresive efforts to promote ethanol, and certainly Brazil has outpaced the United States in getting flexible fuel vehicles on the road. But Maher said, “Brazil got off oil in the last 30 years.” Actually, Brazil still consumes a great deal of oil. It’s also embarking on more offshore drilling in some of the deepest waters for exploration. Brazil is hardly “off oil.” So we rate Maher’s statement False.”

  • Anonymous

    No – see above.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t mistake opinion for fact - of course you are entitled to your opinion – nothing wrong with that.

  • ped_rob

    Maher is a panzy. He is so politically correct which is why he chooses his words carefully when going after Muslims with kid golves.  Also he is scared to death to call out the Revs Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson or even Louis Farrakhan for their past anti-semitic comments but wasted no time in going after Mel Gibson. This is the definition of gutless. he thinks if he goes after Sharpton and Jackson, he might be called a racist by the mainstream media. also he goes after Chrisitians like there is no tommorrow because they are an easy target. Most of them dont respond to his bully tactics, or turn the other cheek or some Christians simply dont care enough to respond. My point is that Maher is not brave at all. Yes he does care what certain people think.

  • WiddleBabyDanielson

    Sometimes the the old classics are the best.
    I LOL’d

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Charles-Swann/100003281352784 Charles Swann

    I am super liberal and I want to like Maher and I just don’t find him funny.  I think the problem is I don’t find him as funny as he finds himself, and it’s hard to laugh with someone when they always beat you to it.  Ditto Chelsea Handler.  Where is the funny?

  • http://twitter.com/DolefulLions Doleful Lions

    I will not respond to you since you made a very inappropriate sizist remark about dwarves. I will not engage people who use hate speech.

  • 12voltman1

    You’re talking about Elisabeth Hasselbeck right?

  • 12voltman1

    There is a big difference between knowing and believing.

  • 12voltman1

    Raymond:(Always repeating over and over)” Uh oh, fifteen minutes to Judge Wapner”

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Jones/100001374595021 Richard Jones

    Man this guy BM is pure PUKE and deserves every mock he can get from us all.
    I used to find him funny, MANY YEARS ago, he is a discrace to us all now.
    I do mind ALL people smearing NEWT, an accomplished GRANDFATHER who made his mistakes, AND has asked for GRACE, and is trying to save our a-s-s from the nutty left and OBUMMER.
     
    Just sayin, let the haters commense….I have had Beck and his sidekick poo smear me just to prove his point that someone (yes NEWT, how did you guess) he believes is a….. DU, DU DUUUUU… ”PROGRESSIVE”. which he claims in his little theory is the cancer that is bringing down AMERICA, in HUCKSTERS little mind.

  • Anonymous

    Yes Hasselbeck is a liar and a wingnut.

  • LiberalMediaIsCorrupt

    Two of the most vulgar persons on this planet.  D*%$nose and a woman who can’t complete a sentence without using vile language.

  • Anonymous

    In confrontations like this, Maher enhances the career of Elizabeth Hsselbeck and she enhances his. They should have lunch together and thank each other for the publicity.  Elizabeth should tell Maher that it is her treat provided that Bill will bow his head while she says grace.  If she tapes it, she can put on her expense account and televise it on “The View.”

  • Anonymous

    I am a conservative and I find them both funny. Maybe, we should both be in therapy!

  • Anonymous

    Put ear plugs in your ear or turn down the sound on your TV set.  She is one hot chick!

    Of course, since Elizabeth is a beautiful and accomplished conservative woman, all the Palin and Bachmann haters will be commenting that she is a racist homophobe with a gay husband who wants to go dog sled racing across Alaska while she sleeps with black NBA players and trys to “cure” gay people through prayer!

  • Anonymous

    What is your evidence that he was lying?  I believe, there is none and this is your subjective opinion.  You don’t like him so you believe he was lying.

  • Anonymous

    He’s smart enough.  He’s not as sharp as 20 years ago and that is probably the truth of it.  Still, he is sharp enough to do his job and do it well.  He is provacative and perceptive.  Not always right – but so what. A good man.

  • Anonymous

    Being mistaken is not at all the same as being a liar is it?

  • Anonymous

    So funny when conservatives dis Mahar for being less than hilarious.  Like unfunny jokes is why they want him off the air.

  • Anonymous

    Really?  The cheek of the man being of disproportionate size and on TV?  Republicans sure have some lofty values.

  • Anonymous

    Like the time when “the boys” had Cartman believed he was a Vietnamese child prostitute with memorable lines like ‘sucky, sucky for 10 dollars’ and ‘man that Vietnamese prostitute really knows how to ride a bull”.  Sad.  Given the reality of child sexual exploitation in third world countries. Stay classy though.

  • Anonymous

    It sounds exactly like something they might actually do on The View, which is why I don’t bother watching it.  In regards to the article, Maher does seem to have a point; if he first made his joke on Feb 4th, and Miss Logan was’nt attacked until the 11th he was only guilty of suggesting the two be switched and no more.

  • Anonymous

    Humor is subjective, as long as you find somebody funny.  Seek out the ones that speak to you and make you laugh.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VK7U6RFTAUIPW2JR2NGPBP2IYA super

    who knew who lara logan was prior to her being assaulted???

  • Anonymous

    So glad Newt is running. Me makes the rest of us look good.

  • Anonymous

    Eric Cartman =Newt Gingrich as a kid

  • Anonymous

    Beautiful..yes. Accomplished conservative? Are you kidding me? What has she accomplished? She was a contestant on Survivor. Why should anyone take what she has to say seriously?

  • david r

    Not a liar, I don’t think.  It’s not like she got famous for any scholarly work.  I think she does a good job with the hand she’s been dealt.

  • david r

     Direct hit, dude. I always end up forgiving him over the long run.  He knows it. Letterman, too.  I may be pissed for a few months and not watch them, but ultimately I can’t resist.  They are both funny.

  • david r

     The best comics are always the truest.

  • Anonymous

    She is a beautiful distinguished intelligent woman who holds her own on a TV show at a table with a group of liberal old hens who cackle for the whole show. Without Elizabeth at the table, the ratings would fall and the show would go off of the air. 

  • Anonymous

    Hasselbeck is hot.
    Her debate skills and conservative views didn’t land her that job.

  • http://newsbusters.org/ AliveStiIIKickin

    Why is it that when something sleazy is going on….Bill Maher is always right there in the middle of it…..like a hog in slop?

  • Anonymous

    I enjoy Handler, but she seems very sad.

© 2012 Mediaite, LLC | About Us | Advertise | Self-Serve Advertising | Newsletter | Jobs | Privacy | User Agreement | Disclaimer | Power Grid FAQ | Contact | Archives | RSS RSS
Dan Abrams, Founder | Power Grid by Sound Strategies | Hosting by Datagram