Bill Maher Accuses ‘Lying’ SNL of Portraying MAGA as Racist: ‘As a Liberal, I Don’t Like It’

Comic and HBO host Bill Maher slammed Saturday Night Live during a Sunday episode of his Club Random Podcast, accusing the show of “lying” by misrepresenting supporters of President Donald Trump as racist in a sketch.

Maher took issue with a segment aired during SNL’s 50th anniversary special in February. The sketch featured actor Tom Hanks reprising his role as “MAGA Doug” from the show’s 2016 Black Jeopardy! bit.

While the original version was praised for finding common ground between a Trump supporter and Black contestants, this year’s sketch drew criticism from the right over a moment where Hanks’ character recoiled in fear when offered a handshake by host Kenan Thompson.

Jillian Michaels, Maher’s Guest Sunday, brought up the sketch.

“Listen, I’ve met Tom Hanks a couple of times, and he was very kind and very lovely, and his wife was exceptionally lovely,” she said. “But when he was on Saturday Night Live –”

Maher cut Michaels off and said, “I hated it, too, and I said it on my show. I know. I hated it. Wearing the MAHA hat, not shaking hands with a Black person. And that’s when I thought, ‘You people don’t know MAGA people.'” Maher added:

I mean, they have their issues, and I certainly have my issues with them. I mean, of course, there’s some racists everywhere who are that bad. But generally, all the MAGA people I know have no problem shaking hands with a Black person. You’re just hysterical, and you’re not helping. That was not helping.

But mostly what I hate is, it’s what I call a zombie lie. Don’t lie to me. It’s a lie. That MAGA people won’t shake hands with – I get it, it’s part of a skit, and it’s an exaggeration, and that’s comedy – it’s a little too delicate a subject to just make it – to go there for that one. So, you know. Look, we all in comedy step over the line sometimes.

The Real Time host concluded, “But I’m telling you, as a liberal, I don’t like it. Again, because lying offends me, I’m a comedian. When the premise isn’t real, I can’t go with – the joke is not gonna work. The premise has to ring true. That premise doesn’t ring true. It might have rang true, I don’t know, X years ago. It doesn’t now.”

Watch above via the Club Random Podcast.