Screenshot via Club Random YouTube
Bill Maher called it “unthinkable” for him to perform at colleges today, accusing woke students of embracing communism and not wanting “their minds pried open.”
Maher was joined by fellow comedian Ray Romano on the latest episode of his Club Random podcast, and the two primarily discussed their lengthy careers in comedy. At one point, both noted they’d never done much of the “college circuit” during their touring and Maher called it “unthinkable” to even consider it.
Maher said even Romano, star of Everybody Loves Raymond, would likely be protested today.
“You would have half this and half this way maybe,” Romano said about Maher.
“First of all, they would protest before I even got on the campus,” Maher said.
“Half of them. Some of them,” Romano responded.
Maher argued it’s worse than Romano thinks, recalling students protesting him speaking at the Berkeley graduation in 2014. A petition from students referred to Maher as a “blatant bigot,” mainly citing his
“I was uninvited when I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Berkeley graduation and then reinvited, but today, are you kidding? These kids!?” Maher said. “That would be the first thing they’d do is try to get me thrown [out]. They don’t want to hear anything they don’t already agree with. They don’t want their minds pried open, and you know what? Let somebody else do it.”
Maher later blasted young critics who called him “old” and dismissed him as a “get off my lawn” type grump, referring to a famous line shot at older people following the 2008 Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino.
“I probably spend more time with people in their twenties than most people my age do,” Maher said, insisting he likes young people and their “exuberance” for life.
Maher said that using phrases like “get off my lawn” to dismiss him ignores whatever point he was initially making.
“I’m not going to hold my tongue when they embrace stupid ideas, and of course, then they’ll just the tritest, easiest, most erroneous thing lobbed at people like us… you’re old, now it’s about just get off my lawn. It’s like, okay, you put zero amount of thinking into the actual point I’m making,” he
“I don’t have that issue when I do my standup,” Romano joked.
Watch above via Club Random.