‘He F***ed Liberace!’ Bill Maher Defends Matt Damon from ‘Woke Police’ Over F-Slur Outrage

On Friday’s Real Time on HBO, host Bill Maher offered a lengthy condemnation of what he called the “woke police” for their repeated, mostly social media-based swarms of outraged reactions to actor Matt Damon.

The specific recent example of high dudgeon was with regard to Damon saying that, following a discussion with his daughter, he was going to “retire the f-slur” from his vocabulary. Damon said that he used the term with a “different application” growing up, and it had remained with him in that context for some time. He later clarified what he was referring to.

Bill Maher listed this and multiple other instances of attacks and “cancel” efforts against Damon, saying they are “bad faith” arguments. In other words, that people know each time this happens the difference between the truth of what is happening and the spin used as the basis for outrage, but do it anyway so they can generate social media traffic.

“One might say he became woke,” said Maher. “Okay, he was late to the party. To which we could say, ‘welcome. Glad you could make it.'”

“Or we could say ‘you came later than I did, die!'” he continued. “There are too many people in this country who are motivated not by what they really believe, but why will get Twitter to react to them with likes and retweets. That’s called bad faith.”

He listed headlines attacking Damon, who he called one of the most likable people in Hollywood.

“He’s got a clean water charity and delivers food to Haiti. What have you done, Vox headline writer?” said Maher. “And yet he is always getting pulled over by the woke police.”

During the general review of the history of Damon woke controversies, Maher got very specific on the charge of being anti-LGBTQ.

“Here’s how un-homophobic Matt Damon is: He fucked Liberace!” said Maher as a still from the movie Behind The Candelabra, in which Damon played the artist’s younger lover Scott Thorson.

Maher continued, explaining again how bad faith arguments are made routinely in culture in politics, even using the recent controversy that surrounded Republican Kevin McCarthy joking that, if he were given the Speaker’s gavel, it would be “hard not to hit” current Speaker Nancy Pelosi with it.

After showing some of the reactions, Maher blasted them. “Shut the fuck up,” he said. “This is what bad faith is. You don’t really think it was a threat of violence, or that anyone thinks such violence would be a laughing matter, or that Kevin McCarthy is a ‘would-be assailant’ any more than anyone thinks Matt Damon’s a homophobe.”

“And Matt, my advice to you? Stop hunting for good will. You’re not gonna find much in this country,” Maher concluded.

Watch the clip above, courtesy of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet Newsletter
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!